Nicholls women’s tennis team gets off to quick start before eventually falling to Lamar

Although the women’s tennis team ultimately fell 5-2 to Lamar in Southland Conference action Tuesday in Lake Charles, the team got off to the quicker start that coach Greg Harkins had been aiming for.

Behind the play of Carla Bouygues, who teamed with Constanza Cruz to win their doubles match, Nicholls gained the early point from doubles play by taking two of the three matches.

Bouygues was also an early winner in singles play before Lamar rallied for the victory.

Playing as the No. 2 doubles team for Nicholls, Bouygues and Cruz defeated the Lamaar duo of Natali Turczuk and Saloni Tamang, 6-3.

Following that match, the Nicholls No. 3 doubles tandem of Noemie Piquet and Dareen Hassan defeated Lamar’s Marika Mueller and Jayci Wong, 7-5, to earn the doubles point.

In No. 1 doubles, the Nicholls team of Lea Grinberg and Aada Inna fell to Leah Kuruvilla and Megan Do, 1-6.

“We made some adjustments this week and tweaked the lineups. We had discussed positioning and execution of shots and we actually saved two match-points in Line 3, but honestly, it was more about intensity and just match-play fight. I was really proud of the efforts to secure the first point in the match,” Nicholls coach Greg Harkins said.

Playing on Court 2, Bouygues defeated Mueller, 6-2, 6-0.

“She’s been our leading player the last four years,” Harkins said. “Carla got off to a fast start. She clinched her match. She was the first off the courts, so we were up 2-0. We started the match ahead in four of six lines, so we really got off to a great start.

“Credit to Lamar’s team, they settled down and really just made more balls. That’s really what it came down to.”

On Court 1, Nicholls’ QianYu Lui fell to Leah Kuruvilla, 4-6, 3-6.

In other action, Sophia Safarova fell to Do (3-6, 3-6); Grinberg lost to Elena Rubio (5-7, 2-6); Inna was defeated by Turczuk (1-6, 4-6); and Piquet fell to Metwally (4-6, 7-6, 8-10).

“We had the discussion after the match about competitiveness and we finally started to get some traction,” Harkins said. “We had some good practices this week. We’re still trying out the lineups with the right placement of everybody.

“I think a month from now, we win this match. The reality is Lamar settled in and made more balls and they were able to secure the victory in hard-fought Southland Conference match.”

The match was originally scheduled to be played March 2 in Thibodaux but was postponed due to inclement weather. Since Lamar already had made the trip for the game, by conference rules, the makeup is to be played at a neutral site at a point halfway between the two schools.

The Nicholls women (6-4) will be back in action when they play at the University of Incarnate Word at 1 p.m. Saturday in San Antonio.