University of San Francisco Athletics

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – A battle to the final serve, the San Francisco women's tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision to Santa Clara in its first West Coast Conference match of the season Tuesday afternoon at Dagheri Tennis Center.

The Dons move to 7-3 on the season while Santa Clara, ranked No. 63 by ITA Tennis, improves to 4-3 in the conference opener for both teams.

USF opened the day by falling behind in the doubles competition after Stephanie Skara and Nicolette Wolny edged the Broncos out to the early lead. USF's Andrea Ka and Thyra Taune, playing in the No. 1 doubles position, avenged a fall loss to Katie Le and Daniella Silva. The USF duo fell to Le and Silva in the semifinals of the Saint Mary's Invitational, and hadn't paired up since the Oct. 12 loss. The reunited tandem took Tuesday's match 8-4 to leave the point up for grabs. However, the Dons eventually dropped the doubles point and headed into singles action down 1-0 in the match.

Ka, playing in the No. 2 position evened the score after a resounding 6-1, 6-1 victory over Chelby Cooke.  Brooke Irish, facing Wolny for the second time of the season, earned a 6-0, 6-1 win to give USF the advantage in the match.

At No. 1 singles, Le again evened the score after defeating Taune, 6-3, 6-1. Marina Nikolic was next to finish as the junior from Mountain View, Calif., gave the Dons their third point of the day after taking a 6-3, 6-3 win from Daniella Silva.

Santa Clara was next to exact a reversal of fortune from the fall as Stephanie Skaras evened the season score with Milica Hadzi-Tanovic and knotted the match at 3-3. Delphine Rouvillois earned a win at the No. 3 spot to close out the day with the Broncos taking a 4-3 win.

USF has now dropped six-straight matches to Santa Clara, dating back to the 2010 season.

The Dons will regroup for a pair in Provo, Utah, to begin the month of March. Up first, USF faces Nevada March 7 at 1 p.m. PT.
 

---

No. 63 Santa Clara 4, San Francisco 3
Feb. 25 | Dagheri Tennis Center | Santa Clara, Calif.
 
Singles | Order of finish: 2, 6, 1, 4, 5, 3*
No. 1 – #28 Katie Le (SCU) def. Thyra Taune (USF); 6-3, 6-1
No. 2 – Andrea Ka (USF) def. Chelby Cooke (SCU); 6-1, 6-1
No. 3 – Delphine Rouvillois (SCU) def. Sofia Holmberg (USF); 7-5, 6-2
No. 4 – Marina Nikolic (USF) def. Daniella Silva (SCU); 6-3, 6-3
No. 5 – Stephanie Skaras (SCU) def. Milica Hadzi-Tanovic (USF); 6-4, 6-2
No. 6 – Brooke Irish (USF) def. Nicolette Wolny (SCU); 6-, 6-1
 
Doubles | Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
No. 1 – Ka/Taune (USF) def. Le/Silva (SCU); 8-4
No. 2 – Cooke/Rouvillois (SCU) def. Hadzi-Tanovic/McCloskey (USF); 8-3
No. 3 – Skaras/Wolny (SCU) def. Irish/Nikolic; 8-4