Women’s Tennis Earns Gritty 7-0 Win Over Eastern Washington

SPOKANE, Wash. – A 7-0 win on Friday afternoon over Eastern Washington for the Air Force Women's Tennis team fails to paint a full picture for the effort and determination the Falcons exhibited in earning such a score.

Despite claiming wins across the board over EWU, the result was decided on a pair of gritty match tiebreak wins for senior team captain Alexis Odom and freshman Sofia Mavor - and a stunning comeback victory for the Falcon newcomer – on the way to pitching the Falcons' second shutout of the year.

Air Force (4-2, 0-0 MW) took an early 1-0 lead after clinching a challenging doubles point on lines one and two. The Falcons' court two pairing of Odom and Maya Michalski struck first, pushing a 4-1 lead over EWU's Leandra Nizetic/Kelly Arends, before closing out on a 6-3 win.

As Odom/Michalski got off court two, lines one and three were both locked in a dead heat at 4-all. On court three, Eastern Washington's Zoe Pradel/Sara Vasic pulled ahead of No. 79 Falcon duo Sofia Mavor/Shivaani Selvan at 5-4, but Mavor/Selvan stormed back in A 40-love game to tie it back up and eventually take a 6-5 lead. Air Force's top flight of Arianna Van Houweling/Nadia Kojonroj retook their lead off a deuce-point win over Isabella Foshee/Anait Arutiunian and then clinched the doubles point for the Falcons.

In singles, the Falcons put up two-set wins on courts six, two, three and five in order:

Air Force went up 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-0 win on court six; Sophomore Giovanna Sanchirico earned her third straight-set win of the season, dispatching of Vasic in nine-straight games on the way to a 4-1 start to the season.

Van Houweling clinched a 3-0 Air Force lead on line two over Arutiunian in a convincing 6-1, 6-2 win. The Falcon junior went up 3-0 and 5-0 in both respective sets before ceding a point. Notching her third consecutive win, Van Houweling improves to 3-1 in dual singles play this season.

Kojonroj, taking on EWU's Leandra Nizetic on court three, clinched a team win with a 6-3, 6-1 victory, earning her fourth straight-set victory and improving to 4-1.

After the clinch, the Falcons played on; Selvan, on court five, swept match point to secure a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Pradel and her third win of the season.

With Air Force's victory secured, Odom and Mavor, competing on lines one and five, entered a super tiebreak after splitting sets against Foshee and Arends. Odom, in a deadlock with Foshee that never saw either competitor get beyond a two-game lead in either set, got up to a 7-4 advantage in the tiebreak before Foshee answered to tie once again at 7-all. Both players traded leads down the end of the set and each answered to tie at 8-all and 9-all, before Odom rallied to take the final two points and secure her court with an 11-9 set win.

Mavor, after splitting 6-3 results with Arends in the opening two sets, went down 8-2 in the tiebreak, but rallied for eight-straight points to claim a 10-8 win and the match, while securing the shutout win for Air Force.

As a squad, Air Force improves to 12-3 (.800) in doubles sets and 21-9 (.700) in singles play this dual season

Up Next:
Air Force Women's Tennis takes on Gonzaga at the Stevens Center in Spokane on Saturday afternoon, 1 p.m.

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