On Sunday afternoon, Boston College women’s tennis took to the road to square off against No. 37 Georgia Tech, looking to rebound from a tough 4-3 defeat to No. 15 Florida State that came down to the final set. Once again, the Eagles put up an admirable fight against a ranked foe, taking the match to the final set of the last two singles matches. Much like the tough loss to the Seminoles, though, BC couldn’t get the job done, losing both matches and falling to the Yellow Jackets, 5-2.
The day started off well for the Eagles (11-7, 2-7 Atlantic Coast), who emerged victorious in two of three doubles matches to win the doubles point. At the number one court, Yufei Long and Kylie Wilcox teamed up to take down the Yellow Jackets’ top pairing of Nami Otsuka and Gia Cohen, 6-4. Kenya Jones and Valeriya Deminova put GT (7-8, 4-4) on the board with a 6-1 victory over Jackie Urbinati and Elene Tsokilauri, but Natasha Irani and Loren Haukova came through with a 6-2 win to put the Eagles up, 1-0.
Unfortunately for BC, it did not fare as well on the singles courts. Irani made quick work of Cohen, 6-0, 6-2 on the fourth court to momentarily give the Eagles a 2-0 advantage, but Tsokilauri fell by an identical scoreline to Victoria Flores to give GT its first point of the match—which would spark a 4-0 points run and eventual victory for the host Yellow Jackets.
In the first singles pairing, Wilcox—fresh off a doubles victory—had a tough task against Kenya Jones, the No. 12 singles player in the country. The junior held her own, but lost in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Yufei Long, Wilcox’s doubles partner, was next to lose, also in straight sets. Long’s loss gave the Yellow Jackets a 3-2 lead, and left both Urbinati and Laura Lopez needing wins to keep the Eagles’ chances alive.
Yet neither managed to pick up a win that would tie the match at 3-3. Urbinati lost a tough match to Deminova, 7-5, 7-5 that sealed the win for GT, and, moments later, Lopez fell in three sets to Gizdova to conclude the match.
With the defeat, the Eagles once again proved that they have the talent to be competitive in the ACC, despite not having the results to prove it. Even so, the 2019 campaign can be looked at as a step forward for the program, which appears to be on track for a second-straight winning season, and still has a chance at 15 wins for the first time since 2003.
Featured Image by Jonathan Ye / Heights Editor
