LAFAYETTE, La. – Freshman Mariya Krachok (Kiev, Ukraine) won both of her matches and the University of South Alabama women’s tennis team earned seven victories Friday on the first day of the UL Invitational hosted by Louisiana at Lafayette.

Krachok lost just four games in her two wins and each Jaguar singles win was in straight sets.

“We did an excellent job of competing and doing damage control on a day where as a team, we did not have our best stuff,” USA head coach Jaco Keyser said. “The main concern is the fact that we were self-destructing for big parts of matches with a lack of ball control and not making our opponents beat us.”

Krachok defeated Mackenzie Oskin of Southern Miss 6-2, 6-1 and Anastasio Surkova of McNeese State 6-0, 6-1.

In the ‘A’ draw, senior Alina Volman (Lugansk, Ukraine) won her opener 6-3, 6-0 over Laura Fernandez of Louisiana Tech 6-3, 6-0 but lost in the third round to Carla Nava of Middle Tennessee 0-6, 6-4, (10-7).

Freshman Ramona Ghermani (Bad Wimpfen, Germany) and sophomore Emily Newton (Dothan, Ala.) lost their first match of the day. Ghermani fell 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) to Carolina Salas of Lamar while Newton was defeated 6-0, 6-0 by Medy Blankvoort of Louisiana at Monroe.

Freshman Mary Angela Martin (Mobile, Ala.) claimed an opening-round 6-3, 6-4 win over Tea Tvrtkovic of McNeese State but was downed 6-1, 7-5 in the next round by Briggitt Marcovich of ULL.

In the ‘B’ bracket, senior Chané Hines (Johannesburg, South Africa) lost 6-2, 7-5 to Vivlan Polak of ULM and USA’s Veronika Kalugina (Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia) dropped a 6-0, 6-1 decision to Diana Pirciu of McNeese State. Kalugina advanced in the consolation bracket with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Frances Askew of Southern Miss.

In doubles action, Martin and Krachok claimed the Jaguars’ only victory of the day with an 8-3 win over Askew and Alex Bradley of Southern Miss. Volman and Newton lost to Nava and Nayara Moraes of Middle Tennessee 8-1 and Ghermani and Hines fell 8-2 to Milou Israel and Erin Wilbert of Louisiana at Lafayette.

“The good thing is we have another day jam-packed with matches tomorrow to help us work out the kinks for the upcoming season,” Keyser said.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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