Box Score BETHANY, W.Va. – The Franciscan University inaugural Lady
Baron Tennis team was defeated by the Bethany College Bison, 6-3,
at Tuesday's afternoon match. The Lady Barons now stand 1-5 overall
on the season and 1-2 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate
Conference. But the final score doesn't show everything about how
the match went.
"The score didn't really show how close these two teams were,"
said head coach Curtis Allen. "The girls are putting in a lot of
hard work, and it's showing. Sure, the results weren't there today,
but there have been improvements day-in and day-out."
Only three days earlier, the Lady Barons were left picking up
the pieces after a 9-0 defeat at the hands off Geneva College on
Franciscan's home courts. It took a lot determination for the Lady
Barons to move forward and strive for improvement.
And the Lady Barons did.
The boxscore showed that there was obvious improvement from the
match before. Lyndsay Nadeau led
the Lady Baron charge, winning both of her matches. Nadeau won her
singles match with a strong tally of 6-3, 6-1. Then she and
Lucia
Neugenbauer pulled out a close 9-8 (2) win over Bethany's
Tiffany Simpson and Liz Kletzli.
The third win came from Mariette
van der Wegen, who persevered to win a 7-6 (1) opening set in
order to take the second set, 6-1.
The closest singles match on the day was a 7-6 (8), 6-7 (8),
(10-2) marathon where Bethany's Bridgette Fauth defeated
Neugenbauer.
"Lucia [Neugenbauer] battled very hard," Allen said. "She
was down in the first two sets and she came back. Unfortunately,
she lost the first set in a close one, but she battled back again
in the second set and won. Then I think she just ran out of
gas."
Franciscan gained much during Tuesday's match, despite the
loss.
"I think the girls gained confidence" noted Allen. "They know
that they have the ability to compete."
The Lady Barons compete this Friday, September 24, hosting Mount
Union College at Franciscan's Belleview Park courts at 3:30
p.m.
