WORCESTER, Mass.—UMass Boston women's tennis (0-3, 0-1 Little East) put together their best performance of the young 2014 campaign but fell just short Saturday afternoon in a 5-4 Little East Conference opening loss to Worcester State University (4-0, 1-0 Little East).
Freshman Martina Daelli (Florence, Italy) earned her first two collegiate victories and junior Nurcin Celebi (Istanbul, Turkey) picked up her first win in her season debut.
Daelli and doubles partner Kristy Garcia (Miami, Fla.) each finished 2-0 in their first collegiate conference match, as the Beacons narrowly missed earning their first win against the Lancers since 2011.
Worcester State raced out to a 1-0 lead, behind an 8-0 victory from Shelby Jankins and Megan Shepard over UMass Boston's pair of Kelsey Shea (West Bridgewater, Mass.) and Logan Smith (Southwick, Mass.) at number two doubles.
Daelli and Garcia answered back for UMass Boston, as the Beacons' number one doubles pair earned their first doubles win of the season with an 8-5 victory.
The third and final doubles match was by far the closest, as both teams had their chances to give their team a 2-1 edge. After trailing 6-3, the Beacons' pair of Vicky Woytowicz (Springfield, Mass.) and Kathleen Conroy (Quincy, Mass.) won four consecutive games and had match point at 7-6, before eventually falling 9-7 to Worcester State's Fania Volf and Rachel Green.
Shepard pushed the lead to 3-1 in favor of the Lancers with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Conroy at number five singles.
Volf quickly tacked on a fourth point, as she dealt Shea a 6-1, 6-1 loss at fourth singles.
Celebi cut the deficit to 4-2 when she opened her season with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Cassandra Goncalves.
The Beacons made it 4-3 moments later when Garcia earned her second-consecutive singles win. After trailing 4-1 in the first set, Garcia came back to take the set 7-5 and then cruised to a 6-2 win in the second set.
After losing two points in a row, Worcester State clinched the match victory at number three singles, as Natalie Paul held off Smith 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
Daelli closed out the match with a 7-5, 7-5 win at number two singles, to earn her first collegiate singles win.
UMass Boston will return to non-conference action Thursday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. when the host Eastern Nazarene College.
