By Zoë Woodward – Spear Reporter | Sophomore partners Emma Fantousis and Soledad Fayos Capilla celebrating winning a point. Photo by Zoë Woodward – Spear Photographer.
San Jose State women’s tennis (7-5, 0-3 MW) lost 4-2 against Air Force (4-10, 2-1 MW) in front of its home fans in a matchup that went down to the wire.
The matchup would end up needing to be decided by the last two singles matches that had both been taken to a third set.
When sophomore Soledad Fayos Capilla was beaten 6-4 in the final set, the Falcons would take the victory, meaning sophomore Cristina Mateos Losada‘s match would be unfinished.
Despite the day ending in a loss, the afternoon did begin on a positive note as sophomore double partners Emma Fantousis and Capilla dominated the Falcons by only giving up one set and winning 6-1.
There was only one point up for grabs in the double matches, so their performance wouldn’t count towards anything due to the other two being won by the Falcons.
“We’ll practice tomorrow and we have got to play some bigger points better. Every match is going to be like that,” SJSU head coach Chad Skorupka said. “Unfortunately, we just didn’t step up and that was the result we got today.”
As the sun continued to beat down at the Spartan Tennis Complex, the Spartans would battle it out in the singles matches to try and find a way back.
Another brilliant performance from Fantousis meant that she won 6-3, 6-1 and was once again playing her part in keeping the Spartans’ hopes alive.
From that point on, the Falcons would take the next two points.
With the score standing at 3-1, all the Falcons needed to do was win the next singles game to take the match. However, junior Duru Durgun would go on to win her match 7-5, 6-4 to help keep the Spartans in with a chance.
“We fought all the way to the end but we did lose a bit of focus but obviously it was a great effort. I’m not upset about that,” Skorupka said. “A couple of points here or there, where we could have focussed a little bit more, I thought could have been the difference but it was a good battle.”
After a long afternoon in the blazing heat, the Spartans would fall to the Falcons at the last hurdle. Senior Arianna Van Houweling would go on to beat Capilla 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a gruelling test of durability.
It’s another quick turnaround for the team as they take on New Mexico at noon on Sunday, Mar. 22 at the Spartan Tennis Complex.
