Women’s Tennis Falls 4-3 to Weber State

Box Score

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – A shorthanded Air Force women's tennis team opened 2023 competition on a strong note, but ultimately fell to Weber State, 4-3.

The Falcons clinched their first doubles point of the dual season behind wins on lines one and two for Sydney Fitch/Alexis Odom (6-4) and Abby Cotuna/Isabella Flodin (6-2).

Cotuna/Flodin, after opening the set 2-0 over Weber State's Sicely Ferreira/Kenadee Semenik, found themselves tied up at 2-2 before winning four-straight games to secure the duo's first career victory.

On court one, Fitch/Odom found themselves locked in a battle with Wildcat pair Ana Morett/Megan Davies, trading game wins throughout the set before a decisive 5-4 game in which the Falcon pair took four-straight points to secure the doubles win for Air Force.

In singles play, sophomore Andrea Le earned a convincing 6-3, 6-1 win on court five over Wildcat Dylan Lolofie. With Lofofie leading in the opening set 3-2, Le went on to win ten consecutive games to defeat her Weber State opponent in straight sets.

On line six, freshman Arianna Van Houweling closed the day with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Li Yang Ping An. After exchanging wins to a 3-3 draw in the opening set, Van Houweling claimed three-straight games to close out the opening set with a 6-3 win over Ping An.

In the second, Van Houweling fell behind as far as 3-1, before rallying to even the set once again at 3-3. From there, neither competitor gained more than a one-game advantage over the other before Van Houweling pulled off back-to-back deuce points on the way to a 7-5 win.

Isabella Flodin, debuting her spring singles campaign on court four against Semenik, claimed a 6-0 sweep in the opening set, but ultimately fell in the final two 7-6, 6-3.

Le on Her Season-Opening Performance and Getting Back to Competing:
"It was really awesome to get out here and play today. The energy was definitely in the building, and it's nice to have that back. I was playing and serving really well, and I was really happy with my performance. I don't think I could have started the season any better.

"It was really neat to have all of the support from our officer representatives today, and our old math tutor, and it was just really refreshing to be back out in front of our fans today."

Head Coach Kim Gidley Recaps the Day's Events:
"The team played well enough to win, but we just fell short. I felt today was definitely a growing experience for us as a whole, that'll will bolster our efforts as the season progresses. We are going to get a ton of singles matches from here on out, so the opportunity to improve will be there.

"Weber State is especially strong in the doubles, so that was a terrific win the doubles point – All three teams played well today.

"In the singles, we had some great play by Izzy, Andie, and Ari. These three competed from the first to the last point and it was great to see them execute so well."

The Falcons (0-1, 0-0 MW) close their opening weekend hosting Colorado on Sunday at 5 p.m. in the Cadet East Gym.

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Abby Cotuna

Sydney Fitch

Isabella Flodin

Andrea Le

Alexis Odom

Arianna Van Houweling

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