BANGOR, Maine—Three players finished 2-0, to lead UMass Boston women's tennis past host Husson University 7-2 in both teams' season opener on Saturday afternoon.
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 7, Husson University 2
(UMass Boston 1-0)
(Husson University 0-1)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Senior captain Katie Gauthier (West Boylston, Mass.) and freshmen Evangelia Vassiliadis (Weymouth, Mass.) and Shelby Parent (Cambridge, Minn.) each finished 2-0 in the win over the Eagles.
After an extremely tight set of doubles matches, UMass Boston won five of the six singles matches to cruise to the match win.
Husson opened the scoring in doubles, when Ashley Matlock and Nicci Munroe defeated Valeria Tueme (Bonney Lake, Wash.) and Chloe Gates (Plymouth, Mass.) 8-0 at second doubles.
UMass Boston evened the score with a comeback win at first doubles. After trailing 6-5, Gauthier and Parent won the final three doubles games to pick up an 8-6 win.
The Beacons took the lead with another close match at third doubles. Meaghan Moriarty (Norton, Mass.) and Vassiliadis jumped out to a 7-4 lead and held on for an 8-6 win at third doubles and a 2-1 lead overall.
Tueme collected her first win of the season and made it 3-1 overall at fourth singles. The senior defeated Julia O'Leary 6-3, 6-2 at fourth singles.
Gauthier quickly pushed the lead to 4-1, as she cruised to a 6-0, 6-3 victory at first singles.
UMass Boston clinched the match victory at second singles. Vassiliadis easily dispatched Natalie Tilton 6-0, 6-2 to make it 5-1 Beacons.
Husson earned their sole point during singles play at third singles. Moriarty took the first set 6-4, but Hannah Malinen stormed back to tie the match with a 6-2 set two win. In the third set super tiebreaker, Malinen downed Moriarty 10-5 to earn a 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 win.
Parent earned her second win of the day at fifth singles. After sweeping Munroe in the first set 6-0, she found herself trailing 4-3 in the second set. Parent came roaring back and won four of the next five games to win 6-0, 7-5.
In the final match of the day to finish, Gates collected a 6-2, 6-4 win at sixth singles.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Saturday's victory marked the Beacons third season-opening win in their past four years.
- Vassiliadis and Parent are the first freshman to go 2-0 in their collegiate debuts, since Gauthier went 2-0 in the Beacons' 2016 season-opening win over the College of Staten Island.
- With the win, UMass Boston improves to 1-0 all-time against Husson.
- The victory marked head coach Charles Lai's first career win on Opening Day. Lai took over for the spring portion of the Beacons' 2018-19 season.
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston will look to improve to 2-0 for the first time since 2001 on Sunday, when they travel to Colby College to take on Thomas College (Maine) at 1 p.m.
