SPRINGFIELD - Franciscan women's tennis kicked off its first-ever spring season with a 5-4 loss to Wittenburg in a dual-match with the men's tennis team.

"It's the first spring season for the girls and I think they started it off the right way," head coach Jeremy Ellis said. "It's been tough to get in practice time, having to dodge the weather here and there, but I think the girls did well regardless."

For doubles play, Ellis paired two freshmen, Maria Binette and Julia Razook, together at No. 1 and two veterans in juniors Erin Coyne and Claire Haddad at No. 2. The two freshmen put up a good fight in their No. 1 doubles match but ultimately lost 8-5 while the two juniors had a much tougher time in their match, losing 8-0 at No. 2 doubles.

Sophomore Anna O'Connor and freshman Taranee Karimpour provided the one bright spot for the Lady Barons during doubles play as the two paired up well together at No. 3 doubles, bringing home an 8-4 win.

Karimpour carried her strong play over to singles and rolled in her No. 6 singles match, winning by a score of 6-0, 6-1 and tying the match at two points apiece. O'Connor also won her No. 5 singles match 6-4, 6-4 to pull Franciscan ahead in the match 3-2.

Wittenburg then won three straight matches at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 to seal the overall win. In her spring debut after spending the fall semester studying abroad in Austria, Coyne struggled in the first set, losing at love 6-0 but then rallied in the second set, going ahead 3-0 before eventually dropping the second set 6-3.

Even though the match had already been decided, Razook was not going to give in to her opponent at No. 2 singles. The freshman won her first set in a tiebreak 7-6(2) but then struggled in the second set, losing 6-2. Razook then pulled out a nail-biting 10-point tiebreaker to decide the third set, bringing the final score to 5-4 in favor of Wittenburg.

"I think she lost a little bit of focus in that second set," Ellis said. "She started to make some mistakes and missed some shots but she bounced back in that third set."

After playing two dual-matches against Grove City and Marietta in the fall, the Lady Barons joined the men's tennis team for this dual match against Wittenburg as part of a short spring season. Ellis said that he enjoyed having both of his teams together on the court for the dual match.

"It's always nice having the guys and girls together, to have everyone out there together," Ellis said. "The facilities were awesome. They had 12 courts so we could put everyone on at the same time."

The Lady Barons will join the Barons for another dual-match on Saturday, April 23, at 1 p.m. at home against Westminster (Pa.).