College Park, Maryland – The No. 39 University of Iowa women’s tennis team improved to 11-4 in the conference season with a 5-2 win against Maryland on Sunday afternoon at the Junior Tennis Champions Center. The 11 Big Ten wins is the most in program history.
The Hawkeyes started out the match capturing the doubles point. Vipasha Mehra and Danielle Bauers defeated Maryland’s Zoe Kulkarni and Ebony Sampson, 6-1, at the No. 3 spot, Elise van Heuvelen and Samantha Gillas went undefeated on the weekend after defeating Minorka Miranda and Adela Josefova, 6-4, at the No. 2 spot to clinch the doubles point.
Coming off a win against Rutgers on Friday, The Hawkeyes remained in the zone capturing the first three singles win at the No. 6, 2, and 1 spots to earn the match victory. Vipasha Mehra ended the weekened with a win after defeating Ebony Sampson, 6-2, 6-1, to get things rolling for Iowa. No. 87 Elise van Heuvelen defeated No. 114 Eva Alexandorva, 6-3, 6-2, at the No. 2 spot. The senior is now only one win behind Liz Canzoneri for fourth in career single wins (92).
No. 20 Alexa Noel continued her undefeated season in singles with a 6-1, 6-2 win over No. 30 Ayana Akli at the No. 1 spot, a win that clinched the Hawkeye victory. Her straight-set win puts her at 21-0 on the season, with 19 straight-set wins.
Maryland came away with two singles points at the No. 3 and No. 5 spots. Minorka Miranda defeated Iowa’s Samantha Mannix, 6-4, 6-4, at the No. 3 spot, and Zoe Kilkarni came back to defeat Iowa’s Michelle Bacalla, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4, at the No. 5 spot.
Samantha Gillas went into three sets for the second time this weekend. The junior defeated Adela Josefova, 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 to go undefeated at the No. 4 spot for the weekend.