Women’s tennis doubles up on wins this weekend

The Bulldogs doubled up on victories over the weekend with wins against Michigan Tech and Lake Superior State.

Ferris moved to 7-5 (2-1 GLIAC) on the season with the weekend sweep.

After a tough loss last weekend to rival Grand Valley to open GLIAC play the Bulldogs bounced back picking up two wins in GLIAC play.

“I think it was all around all weekend,” head coach Mark Doren said. “You know, for the women this weekend, I knew that Michigan Tech and Lake State would both give us everything and we came up clutch when we needed to, which was huge.”

The Bulldogs picked up a win against Michigan Tech on Friday in a close matchup 4-3.

The Bulldogs were able to pick up 2-3 of doubles matches against Michigan Tech with Parker Nolan and Agata Klak defeating their opponents Nicole Ballach and Lauren Opalewski 6-1 in an impressive performance. Sam Stephenson and her doubles partner Sophie Daavettila also picked up an impressive win over their opponents Neva Manas and Chiara Heinz 6-3.

The Bulldogs also won three singles matches on Friday with Sophie Daavettila defeated her opponent Nicole Ballach in three sets, Brittany Lavenant defeated her opponent Dominika Bobik in two sets, and Parker Nolan also won against her opponent Lauren Opalewski in two sets.

The Bulldogs carried their momentum from Friday’s victory into Saturday’s match versus Lake State which ended in a victory. Sam Stephenson won the final match to secure the victory for Ferris.

“She has not really played in the singles lineup a lot this year,” Doren said about Sam Stephenson. “For her to really come up strong last person on the court. So, it came down to her match, and when it comes down to that she was just ice in her veins.”

The Bulldogs came out with three singles matches and Sam Stephenson highlighted with her match-winning singles win in two sets against Julia Raton. Nolan also beat her opponent Muskaan Ranjan in two sets, and Daavettila beat her opponent Nadege Koua in a tough three sets.

“Just complete shock,” Stephenson said. “Seeing all my teammates run over to me after that last final ball I hit that was just like everything at once came out just a great team win for us today.”

The Bulldogs also picked up two wins in doubles out of three matches with Daavettila and Stephenson winning 6-1 and Patricia Gomez and Lavenant wining 6-4.

The Bulldogs will look to capitalize on the momentum they have gained and carry it into the rest of the season especially moving forward in GLIAC play.

“I think just having that confidence,” Stephenson said. “After two tough 4-3 wins this past weekend will help us going forward, hopefully, we can all get healthy and come out next weekend fresh, healthy, and new and keep getting after it.”

The Bulldogs will be back in action next weekend when they face off against Davenport Friday, April 1 at 10 a.m. at Davenport. The team will then travel to another away match against Purdue Northwest Saturday, April 2 at 3:30 p.m. To watch the matches, go to the Ferris State Bulldog Tennis page on Facebook for streaming services.