The Spartans return to beat Marquette 4-3

By Jessica Jimenez – Staff Writer

San Jose State women’s tennis (5-4) came back on top to win 4-3 against Marquette University (8-7), putting an end to their fourth losing streak Saturday afternoon at Spartan Complex.

The Golden Eagles won in doubles matches earning a point for Marquette.

MU’s doubles pairings junior Lesley Foe and sophomore Natalija Popovic won 6-1 over sophomores Klara Milojkovic and Laura Malsert.

Junior Tamara Culibrk and Sophomore Savannah Sendar dropped their 6-4 doubles match.

As for head coach Chad Skorupka, SJSU will be working strategically on preparing for next week’s game.

“We need to work on doubles, doubles, and more doubles,” Skorupka said. “We’re just not playing the big points well. I mean we’re up 3-0 in number one today, 3-0 in number two today, we got some deuce points that we just didn’t get started. Quick errors which we can’t do if we want to be successful later in the Mountain West. Doubles, easy.”

Senior Miyo Kobayashi was ahead of her opponent junior Milica Novakovic in the singles matches when during the second set Novakovic fell due to injury forcing an end to their playing.

Tying a match score for the Spartans 2-2, Milojkovic won 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 against Marquette freshman Elisabeth Desmarais.

Culibrk faced MU junior Fleur Eggink and lost 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 during the sets.

Malsert defended the court tying 3-3 against Golden Eagle junior Isabella Frank winning 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 for her final match.  

Sendar battled heavily against MU sophomore Alexandrina Chinikova during singles 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 with the final set leading to a victory win for SJSU, 4-3.

For Sendar, going into singles she felt confident and felt an exciting rush.

“I wanted the first set, but obviously I didn’t win that one and then after winning the second set, I said ‘okay, this is my match,’” Sendar said.

Next week’s match, Sendar is going to go over what she did today think about how certain plays can be readjusted.

“There are some things in my game I am not really satisfied with right now and I just need to figure that out and hopefully I’ll be fine.” said Sendar.

SJSU will return to home court to on Wednesday to host the College of Charleston for a 12 p.m. matchup.

Follow Jessica on Twitter @jessicajim06

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