DENVER – The No. 38-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team (10-4, 2-0 Summit) won its second Summit League match of the season with a 6-1 victory over South Dakota at Denver Tennis Park on Friday afternoon.
 
DU rallied after unexpectedly dropping the doubles point to win all six of the singles matches – five of them in straight sets.
  
Doubles:
Denver held the early lead in doubles with its No. 1 tandem of graduate student Britt Pursell and junior Andrea Burguete Beltran winning a third-straight match together. They broke in the opening game of the match and extended the lead to 5-1 before sealing it at 6-2.
 
At No. 2 doubles, sophomores Louise Wikander and Caroline Driscoll had remained on serve for the entire match until giving up the first break in what would be the final game of the match.
 
Fellow sophomores Claudia Martinez de Velasco and Alice Otis were on serve until midway through the No. 3 match to go down 2-4 and were unable to break back.
 
Singles:
DU responded to its doubles result strongly, winning in straight sets in the top five singles matches to start. Otis rolled through the No. 5 singles match, dropping just a single game in each set to level the dual in her best result since joining DU this season.
 
DU's first lead of the day came with a Pursell win at No. 2 singles. Though she traded breaks in the first set, she found herself ahead in the scoreline with a break in hand at 4-3 and added a second break in the first set's final game. She conceded a break in the opening game of the second set but won three straight games and eventually took a 5-4 lead.
 
In No. 1 singles, Beltran put Denver within a point of the win, rallying from a break down to win the final five games of the opening set. She served for the second set up two breaks, but her opponent got back within a break at 5-4, though Beltran would ultimately serve it out on her second try.
 
Driscoll, last week's Summit League Peak Performer of the Week, clinched the victory for DU on Court 4, also coming back from a break down in the first set. She broke in two of her next three return games to take the set, 6-4. In the second set, she broke in the fourth game and then again in the seventh before holding in the match's final game.
 
Wikander fought back hard in her match at No. 3 singles, going down 0-3 early before winning the next seven games to take the first set and the opening game of the second set. She used a second break to go up 5-3 before holding in the final game.
 
The only match to go to three sets was No. 6 singles. Martinez de Velasco traded breaks early in the first set before going down 3-5 and dropping the set. She responded with her first bagel in singles this season and then won the final five games of the third set.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team plays its second Summit League match in less than 24 hours when it travels to Omaha on Saturday, March 8, 1 p.m. CT/12 p.m. MT.
 
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