SAN DIEGO – The University of Denver women's tennis team (1-6, 0-0 Summit) battled hard but came up short at San Diego State on Sunday afternoon.
 
After a very tight battle to win the doubles point, Denver found itself in close fights across the singles lineup but ultimately dropped the match, 2-4, to SDSU.
 
Doubles:
The first point of the day came after more than an hour of doubles play and was decided by a tiebreak in the final match. DU got halfway to the doubles point with a straight-forward win from juniors Claudia Martinez de Velasco and Louise Wikander in the No. 2, but SDSU evened things up with a comeback win at No. 3.
 
In the No. 1 singles spot, senior Andrea Burguete Beltran and junior Marley Lambert twice took at least a one-break lead, but their opponents fought back and eventually forced a tiebreaker. Burguete Beltran/Lambert held a 4-2 lead at the changeover and eventually capitalized on their first match point to give Denver a 1-0 lead.
 
Singles:
San Diego State leveled the match with a win at No. 5 singles, but DU freshman Natálie Cinková regained the lead for Denver with a straight-sets win in the No. 6 spot. She raced through the first set with a bagel – the first of her collegiate career in a dual match. The second set proved tougher after traded breaks early turned into a tiebreak. Cinková went ahead, 3-0, and stretched the lead to 6-2. It took a couple tries, but she eventually converted her third match point at 7-4.
 
SDSU again got back on even terms, winning the No. 1 singles match in what would be the final court to end in straight sets. Lambert, Martinez de Velasco and Wikander all found themselves in third sets with both Lambert and Martinez de Velasco fighting back after dropping their first sets, 1-6.
 
Martinez de Velasco came out firing to begin the second set, getting to a 3-1 lead and then eventually going up 5-3 before clinching the set, 6-3. The third set saw both servers struggle to hold, though it was SDSU who broke and successfully consolidated to take it, 3-6, and move within a point of the overall team victory, which the Aztecs would do with a win in No. 2 singles.

Lambert came out on top of a back-and-forth second set to break in the final game for 7-5. Unfortunately, she was broken to start the final set and did not have a chance to get back on serve, ending the match down 2-3 when the dual was clinched.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team finally returns to Denver for its home opener on Saturday, February 15, against BYU at 1:30 p.m. as part of a six-match home stand at Denver Tennis Park.
 
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