Liberty Flames Women’s tennis hosts home win

The morning rain was not enough to put out the Lady Flames fire Saturday, March 30, as the women’s tennis team battled to a 4-3 victory over the Lipscomb Lady Bisons. The match was the team’s first home ASUN match in school history and marked the 100th career win for Head Coach Jeff Maren.

Following a 45-minute delay while the grounds crew dried the courts, Liberty fought to claim its 10th win of the season. 

Saturday’s competition was the second home match of the season for the Lady Flames and the first since Feb. 2. After 14 straight away matches, the Lady Flames were glad to play in Lynchburg again.

“(Being home) felt good,” Maren said. “I am sure the girls enjoyed sleeping in their own beds. It’s kind of a grind knowing you are traveling so much. (Playing at home) gave us a little bit of a jumpstart today.”

The Lady Flames came out playing well against a Lady Bisons team who had won six straight matches since March 1.

In doubles, Lipscomb’s Zika Dzyuba and Kate Popova entered the match as one of the dominant doubles pairing in the entire ASUN. They saw their 10-match-winning streak come to an end at the hands of Lady Flames Maria Medina and Lara Soares.

Dzyuba and Popova battled back after trailing 2-0 to win a deuce in the sixth game and force a tie at 3-3. Medina and Soares regained control and won three straight games to take the set 6-3.

“We were doing a lot of research … because we knew it was going to be a tough match,” Medina said. “We just brought it today. We brought the intensity and played really well together. The chemistry between us is great and that helped a lot today.”

Medina and Soares, Liberty’s top doubles pairing, have played together since last season. The duo developed a friendship off the court that has helped strengthen their play together.

“We are both from South America; (Soares) is from Brazil, and I am from Venezuela,” Medina said. “The cultures are very similar, and we were roommates, so we know each other very well. Our intensity and how much we care about tennis is at the same level.”

The Lady Flames second doubles pairing looked different than usual Saturday. Kalani Soli’s typical partner, Grace Hashiguchi, missed the match due to sickness, so Soli was joined by freshman Alexandra Almborg instead.

Despite playing together for the first time, Almborg and Soli were able to capitalize on one another’s strengths to win their set 6-3 and clinch the doubles point for Liberty.

“Alex is a really good baseline player, and she really suites my game with setting me up at the net,” Soli said. “Our game styles match and that is how we came out with the win today.”

Soli continued to play well in singles play. She breezed to the first singles victory for the Lady Flames with set wins of 6-1 and 6-2 to put Liberty ahead 2-0 overall. 

Shortly after Soli’s win, senior Anna Dollar finished off a 6-1, 6-1 route in the sixth spot to move the lead to 3-0 for the Lady Flames. 

The Lady Bisons got 6-0, 6-2 and 6-4, 6-0 triumphs from Dzyuba and Madeleine Brooks to move the match to 3-2, but Medina capped off the match victory for Liberty with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Liza Diachenko. 

Winning the clinching match was relieving for Medina. The senior leads the team with a 19-7 singles record, but one loss came in the clinching match of the Lady Flames 4-3 defeat to Florida Gulf Coast earlier this season.

“It feels good to be in that situation and be able to overcome it and have a different result than the first one,” Medina said.

Liberty’s No. 5 freshman Alexandra Almborg fought through a leg injury in the second set to keep pace in her singles match but retired once the overall match had been decided.

After the match, Assistant Coach Giancarlo Lemmi presented Maren with an honorary tennis ball to commemorate the seventh-year head coach achieving 100 career victories.

“I just appreciate being able to coach each match,” Maren said.  “I do not think so much about how many matches I won, but about the fact that I have coached in all these matches, wins and losses, and we have been able to do it together as a group. We just happened to have won more
than we lost.”

With the victory, Liberty improves its record to 10-6 overall and 3-1 in the ASUN, while Lipscomb falls to 13-4 and 2-1 in conference play.

Their next match is Thursday, April 4 against Stetson, who defeated FGCU 4-3 Saturday and is also 10-6 on the season.

“(The home games) really help us because we are going to have some really difficult matches coming up,” Maren said. “To have any kind of advantage is a good thing and playing at home is definitely an advantage. We are going to need to have that homecourt advantage to make a statement this year.”