SALT LAKE CITY – The University of Denver women's tennis team (5-2, 0-0 Summit) took a 1-0 lead after doubles but went on to drop a 1-4 decision at Utah on Sunday afternoon.
 
Doubles:
Utah went ahead early in the fight for the doubles point, winning the No. 2 match before Denver responded with wins on the other two courts. Senior Zoe Adkins and sophomore Natálie Cinková leveled things with a 6-3 victory at No. 3 doubles, and senior Hana Bečirovič Novak and Marley Lambert clinched in in a tiebreak in the No. 1 match.
 
Singles:
Utah earned a win in the No. 1 match to even up things overall at 1-1 and then took its first lead of the day on court 4. Cinková fought back after losing the first set at No. 3 singles – just her second time playing as high in the lineup in her career – breaking to start the second set. Even after going down a break later, she kept up the battle and broke back for 5-5 but surrendered her serve on more time to ultimately drop the match.
 
In a similar fashion, Lambert dropped her first set but came out firing in the second set. She went up a break for 4-2 and stretched the lead to 5-2, though Utah's Emmie Moore went on a run to get back on even terms at 5-5. Two games later, they were in a tiebreak that was all level at 3-3 at the first changeover and again at 6-6 at the second. Moore won the first two points after the second changeover, though, clinching the dual for the host team.
 
DU's Bečirovič Novak and freshman Yunfei Cai had also begun comebacks from sets down in the day's final two matches, though both would be abandoned after Utah secured the overall win. Bečirovič Novak had just won the second set at No. 5 singles, 7-5, to force a third set, and Cai was level at 5-5 in the second, rallying back from a 2-5 deficit.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team heads to the University of Arizona's Red/Blue Invitational and is set for three duals against Arizona, Oregon and Arizona State over two days on February 20-21.