With the exception of Victoria Lozano’s dominant performance at No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles with teammate Almudena Sanz, Vandal women’s tennis couldn’t match up with No. 58 Denver, losing 6-1 Mar. 22 in Arlington, Texas.
Lozano defeated Denver’s Caroline Schnell, who posted an overall singles record of 17-16 last year. With this win Lozano is up to five singles wins on the season and has not lost in doubles since Feb. 10 when the Vandals were swept by Boise State.
The rest of the Vandals were unable to capture the doubles point despite Lozano’s win, losing two out of three sets.
Denver players Schnell and freshman Kathryn Hughes have won three doubles matches in a row, defeating Alejandra Lozano and Sophie Vickers 8-6.
Both Beatriz Flores and Belen Barcenilla forced their singles matches to three sets but could not hold off the Pioneers. Vickers was defeated in two straight sets by senior Steffi Raff as the Pioneers advance to 9-3 this spring season.
The Vandals are 0-3 against ranked opposition and after this match slipped down to 6-8 overall after playing their first WAC opponent of the year. In a little less than two weeks, the Vandals will travel to San Antonio to challenge three other WAC teams — New Mexico State, Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech.
The Vandals will make up a cancelled match against Gonzaga on April 10 in Spokane before coming back home on April 12 to play Seattle University, San Jose State and Texas State.
Of the 8 matches left on the schedule, seven of them will be against WAC opponents.
San Jose State has the best record in the WAC, sitting at 10-4 with a three-game winning streak. Most recently, the Spartans beat La. Tech on March 22. The Spartans have appeared on the national rankings multiple times this year.
La. Tech and Denver are fighting for second place with comparable records, while the Vandals trail in fifth place and are 1-6 on the road, 3-1 on the Palouse and 2-1 in neutral territory.
With Sophie Vickers and Rita Bermudez back, the Vandals have won three of their last four matches. The Vandals will have until April 5 to prepare the weekend tournament in San Antonio as they look for their seventh win.
Aaron Wolfe can be reached at [email protected]