WSU finishes regular season with a loss in Seattle
Huskies extend home winning streak to 17
WSU tennis head coach Raquel Atawo talks with WSU tennis player Yura Nakagawa during an NCAA tennis match against UCLA, Sunday, March 5, 2023, in Pullman, Wash.
April 25, 2023
The regular season has come to an end and the 2023 WSU tennis season will be in the back of the minds of nearly every player on the roster following the postseason.
WSU (7-14, 0-10 Pac-12) finished with the dreaded goose egg in the win column of Conference play, having finished their regular season with a 7-0 loss to No. 22 Washington (16-7, 6-4).
Whilst the season is not over with the Pac-12 Championship coming up next week, the end of regular season play had very little that could have gone worse.
UW took all six matches in singles competition and won the two doubles matches. They held the lead in the doubles match that did not finish. With only two Cougs even taking a set, WSU was outmatched from start to finish.
It is the 17th straight road loss for the Cougs in Seattle, continuing their streak of winless play on the Huskies’ Seattle campus.
In doubles action, courts No. 2 and No. 3 finished with UW wins, giving the Huskies the point win. On the No. 1 court, No. 50 ranked Elyse Tse and Eva Alvarez Sande were down 5-2 against No. 65 Erika Matsuda and Hikaru Sota but did not finish.
Doubles results:
Tse/Alvarez Sande (WSU) vs. Matsuda/Sato (UW) 2-5 DNF
Jennifer Kerr/Astrid Olsen (UW) def. Yura Nakagawa/Fifa Kumhom (WSU) 6-2
Sarah-Maude Fortin/Zehra Suko (UW) def. Yang Lee/Hania Abouelsaad (WSU) 6-1
As for singles action, Tse put up a heavy fight in three long sets on court No. 3 but fell in the final en route to a loss. Lee played the final singles match of her collegiate career, but it did not end the way anyone would have drawn it up with a straight-set clean sweep.
The only other WSU player to take a set was Kumhom on court No. 4, who recovered nicely after a clean loss in the first set to take the second 6-3. Despite the win, a 10-7 third-set loss secured a clean win for UW.
Singles results:
No. 107 Sato (UW) def. Alvarez Sande (WSU) 6-1, 6-1
Fortin (UW) def. Nakagawa (WSU) 6-2, 6-0
Olsen (UW) def. Tse (WSU) 5-7, 6-4, (10-8)
Kerr (UW) def. Kumhom (WSU) 6-0, 3-6, (10-7)
Matsuda (UW) def. Abouelsaad (WSU) 6-2, 6-1
Melissa Sakar (UW) def. Lee (WSU) 6-0, 6-0
Following the completion of the regular season, WSU is set to take on the Pac-12 Championship Tournament that will be held Wednesday — Friday in Ojai, California, on the Ojai Valley Athletic Club courts.
