Women’s Tennis: Owls set to face LA Tech in C-USA quarterfinal
FAU women’s tennis is in Denton, Texas for the C-USA Championship Tournament, where they’ll meet Louisiana Tech in the quarterfinal on Friday.
Sophomore Victoria Gomez O’Hayon shows off her strong forehand on the Owls’ home court at the Kimberly V. Strauss Tennis Center.
Gasner Delvarin Jr., Contributing Writer
Cameron Priester, Sports Editor
April 21, 2023
This Friday, April 21, FAU women’s tennis (8-13, 0-2 C-USA) returns to action against #65 Louisiana Tech University in the 2023 C-USA championship quarter-finals after earning the first round bye as the tournament’s #5 seed.
Entering the win-or-go-home game against the 4-seeded Lady Techsters, FAU Director of Tennis Ricardo Gonzalez, believes his Owls are battle-tested, citing the experience of seniors Martina Kudelova and Katerina Filip.
“The girls believe they can win,” said Gonzalez. “They’ve been through it, they’re experienced, they just need to keep fighting, keep playing hard; at the end of the day, we don’t focus on the result, the result will take care of itself.”
The Owls team constitutes only two freshmen, Carla Galmiche and Maya Shanok. Both have grown throughout the season, while sophomores Millie-Mae Matthews and Lexi Silna, and redshirt sophomore Amber McGinnis have seen action in the C-USA Tournament before.
Sophomore Victoria Gomez O’Hayon is one of the few Owls without postseason experience but is one of the four players entering championship games with a double-digit wins record identical to Kudelova at 10-14. Meanwhile, Filip holds 11 wins on the season, and Matthews leads the pack with 14 wins.
The two programs previously have only met twice in their history and split the all-time series 1-1. After conceding the first matchup to the Lady Techsters 7-0 in January 2014, they last met in March 2018 when FAU topped LA Tech 5-2.
Although it is for the first time in nine years that the Owls finished their regular season below .500, on Friday they’ll have the grand task of fighting off LA Tech to avoid a fourth losing streak and keep their season alive.
The winner of Friday’s matchup will advance to the semifinal round to take on the winner of the quarterfinal match between the Florida International University and the University of Texas at San Antonio.
The Quarter-final match between FAU and LA Tech will be this Friday, April 21, at 1 p.m. ET in Denton, TX.
Gasner Delvarin Jr. is a contributing writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, please email: gdelvarinjr2017@fau.edu