The Falcon tennis team suffered their first loss of the season on Friday falling 5-2 against the Pittsburgh Panthers in the Falcons’ first away match of the season.
The team failed to gain a point in doubles, as Pittsburgh took all three matches winning 5-4, 6-2 and 6-3.
They did find a little more luck when it was time to play singles, as junior Vanessa Pardo defeated her opponent 6-3, 6-3 and junior Polina Radeva kept her individual undefeated singles season in tact winning 7-6 and 6-4 in straight sets.
Though that was not enough to pull out the victory in Pittsburgh, Falcons head coach Stephanie Dalmacio saw a lot a fight in her team, despite the slow start.
“We actually fought a lot today as well, just as any other day just like the matches at home,” Dalmacio said. “You know, we came up short in a couple of courts and started out just a little bit slow as well on a couple courts and so that pretty much costed us the match today.”
Pittsburgh for the most part took care of business all throughout the match, winning 4 of 6 in singles, even with their 1st seeded player Jovanna Knezevic not playing with an undisclosed injury.
Coming up short in a couple courts on singles wasn’t the end all, be all for the Falcons, it was the doubles point and the slowness out of the gate at the beginning that proved too costly in the end.
“The doubles point was important for us today as well and we couldn’t pull it off,” Dalmacio said. “Just in a couple courts here, we really just started out a little slow.”
This was new territory for the Falcons, going up against an undefeated ACC opponent on their home court, but Dalmacio felt her team handled it well.
“They actually performed well in a new environment,” Dalmacio said. “There was a crowd, they were against us, but they enjoyed that. As long as there is a crowd out there, we usually play good tennis and today was another good day for us.”
While this was the first away match for this young Falcon squad, travel is far from an issue for this team as seven out of the eight players hail from a different country and according to Dalmacio, that’s nothing they’re not comfortable with.
“I feel like we definitely do well with travel. These guys, being from nine different countries, you’re exposed to traveling early on,” Dalmacio said. “But a tennis court is a tennis court.”
The Falcons now fall to 3-1 on the season, where their next match will be Friday morning in Indianapolis, Indiana against the Indianapolis Jaguars.
Dalmacio understands losses are a part of it, but to her, it’s all about moving forward, taking it one match at a time.
“Every day is a new battle, every team is strong,” Dalmacio said. “We really just prefer to take it one day at a time. If we come up lucky and worked harder than they did, great, but if not, that’s okay, too. We learn from it and hopefully become a better team from those missed opportunities in future matches.”
