No. 35 Alabama Comes Back to Defeat No. 44 Arkansas 4-2 in Friday Night Battle

Friday, April 12

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

4:30 p.m. CT

Alabama

Arkansas

Photo by: Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics

No. 35 Alabama Comes Back to Defeat No. 44 Arkansas 4-2 in Friday Night Battle

4/12/2019 8:38:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Results (PDF)Photo Gallery

The Crimson Tide stormed back from down 0-2 before winning four-straight singles matches

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – After dropping the doubles point and its first singles match the No. 35 Alabama women's tennis team came back to defeat No. 44 Arkansas, 4-2, on Friday night at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. With the victory the Crimson Tide (17-10, 5-7 SEC) has won three of its last four matches after besting the Razorbacks (11-13, 3-9 SEC).

"This was a huge match for us," head coach Jenny Mainz said. "Arkansas is a very good team, they compete very well and I think their coaches have done a really good job. We knew it was going to be a dog fight from the start. Losing that doubles point gave them a little bit of a boost and energy and I was disappointed in our doubles point today. We had some opportunities to close some situations out and win some deuce points that we didn't take advantage of, but we still have things to work on in doubles. But overall it was a great effort by everyone on the team."

"I think the big thing was that we never went away," continued Mainz. "We kept fighting, we were gritty and we were tenacious. I just liked our response because losing that doubles point is tough and we bounced back and went right back to work. We never went away."

The Razorbacks stole the doubles match to begin the night after picking up wins on courts three and one to take the 1-0 edge.

In singles, Arkansas continued to put the pressure on the Tide by quickly winning on court two to double its lead to 2-0. The Razorbacks led in nearly every first set starting out before the Crimson Tide answered back. UA won three tiebreakers in the first set to carry its momentum into the second set of singles play.

Senior No. 47 Andie Daniell got the Tide on the board first with a 7-6(2), 6-0, win over No. 88 Martina Zerulo on court one. Moments later, junior Ann Selim picked up an easy 6-1, 6-1, victory on court six to tie the match at 2-2. Junior Luca Fabian kept the run going after moving past Laura Rijkers, 7-6(7), 6-2.

It was down to courts three and four with junior Alba Cortina Pou facing off against Lauren Alter. After dropping the first set, Cortina Pou fought back to win the match, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, and seal the Crimson Tide victory.

Alabama will return to action on Sunday, April 14 at 1 p.m. CT against Missouri for its final match of the regular season. The match will serve as Andie Daniell's Senior Night and will be streamed live via RollTide.com.

Alabama Results

Doubles

Alter/Tatum Rice def. Daniell/Ito, 6-4
Cortina Pou/Fabian def. Thea Rice/Zerulo, 6-3
Tudor/Carr def. Selim/Gintrand, 6-2

Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1

Singles

No. 47 Andie Daniell def. No. 88 Martina Zerulo, 7-6(2), 6-0
No. 86 Tatum Rice def. Moka Ito, 6-1, 6-3
Alba Cortina Pou def. Luaren Alter, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0
Jacqueline Pelletier vs. Miruna Tudor , 7-6(6), 3-1, unf.
Luca Fabian def. Laura Rijkers, 7-6(7), 6-2
Ann Selim def. Jackie Carr, 6-1, 6-1

Order of Finish: 2, 1, 6, 5, 3

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