The Bowling Green State University womens tennis team fell in both of its Mid-American Conference road matches this weekend, losing Friday, 5-2 to the Northern Illinois Huskies and falling 6-1 Sunday to the Western Michigan Broncos.
Emily Witt and Polina Radeva earned the Falcons two points, winning 7-5, 7-6 and 6-1, 6-3, respectively.
Although the duo of Drew Fillis and Paula Comella grabbed a doubles victory for the team, the other two Bowling Green pairs of Witt and Radeva and Leeah Floyd and Marina Ferrero were unable to win, resulting in the doubles point going to the Huskies.
BG fell to 2-12, 0-1 (MAC) in its conference debut, while Northern Illinois improved its record to 6-7, 1-0 (MAC).
The Falcons then traveled to Kalamazoo, Michigan to face the Broncos of Western Michigan, on Easter Sunday. The Broncos, coming off of a loss against Ball State, came out ready to earn their first conference victory of the season.
Fillis and Comella won 6-4, giving them their third consecutive doubles match. However, the other BG combinations could not come up with victories, Western Michigan starting off the match by taking the doubles point.
Comella was the only Falcon to earn a singles point, winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 over the Broncos’ Melina Lyubomirova.
The overall scores of the match might be misleading, however. Both Witt and Fillis fought closely in their singles sets, falling 7-6, 6-4 and 6-4, 7-5, respectively. The duo of Radeva and Witt also fell in a close set, losing 6-4 to the Broncos’ combo of Barbare Eristavi and Katja Fevralev.
Close scores such as these are significant to show the growth a young team like Bowling Green. Head coach Olga Elkin knows this and is cognizant of the team’s youth.
“We have one upperclassman; one junior. She is hurt for the year, unfortunately. So, we have a very, very young team,” Elkin said in an interview earlier this season. “We’re just trying to kind of all come together, figure it out together and keep working together as a team,” she noted.
Following the loss to Western Michigan, Bowling Green fell to 2-13, 0-2 (MAC) and the Broncos improved to 12-6, 1-1 (MAC).
The Falcons will now travel to face I-75 rival Toledo Saturday, April 1.
“We’re just looking to change the culture a little bit,” Elkin said on BG’s sub-par season last year. A win over the Rockets would certainly help that.
Toledo is 6-8, 0-1 (MAC) and has a 2-1 record at home.
