Serving Up A Dub: Liberty Women’s Tennis Blank Campbell 7-0 And Georgetown 6-1

The Lady Flame’s women’s tennis team swept its home doubleheader Jan. 29, notching victories against Campbell University and Georgetown to win its first matches at home this season and push its overall record to 2-2. 

The Lady Flames swept the Campbell Fighting Camels in the first match with a final score of 7-0. The team won all of its singles matches with only two moving into the third set. The Camels took one of the three doubles matches, but after winning two out of the three, the Lady Flames won overall. 

Kalani Soli, Alexandra Almborg, Mario Juliana Para Romero, Esther Lovato, Tiffany Nguyen and Marina Davtyan won their singles matches against Campbell. Davtyan and Lovato dominated their matches, never allowing their opponent to score more than the point set.  

Soli was the highlight of the first match, playing in her first game since March 2020 — 690 days ago. She won her first match against Campbell’s No. 1 in singles, coming back after losing the first set. 

Proving that she just needed to get back in the swing of things, Soli improved with each match, starting 4-6 in her only loss and then winning 6-4 and 6-1 to give Liberty the point. Her comeback was cut short after she had to forfeit in her second set of singles matches against Georgetown due to injury. 

In the later match against Georgetown, the Lady Flames dominant streak continued to defeat the Hoyas 6-1. The Hoyas’ only point came from Soli’s forfeit.

In doubles, the Lady Flames swept Georgetown with all three teams winning in dominant fashion.

 Nguyen and Para Romero, Eloise Saraty and Elsa Kirch, and Bruna Sampaio and Maretha Burger won their matches 6-1, 6-2 and 6-1 respectively. 

Besides Soli, all of the Lady Flames won their singles matches. Willa Rogers, Para Romero, Almborg, Lovato and Nguyen combined to give Liberty five of its six total points. Georgetown put up more of a fight than Campbell, but the Hoyas were unable to push any singles match into a third set. 

Lovato, a sophomore in her third year with the women’s tennis team, won both of her singles matches. She singlehandedly dominated her counterparts from Campbell and Georgetown, only allowing them two-set wins in total and winning her matches 6-1 and 6-0. 

Lovato credited her practice as the reason for her recent success.  

“In practice, (I) keep that high intensity just like a match, along with that having experience with singles matches,” she said.

Liberty will be back in action on the road at VCU (3-1) Feb. 4. The Lady Flames and Rams will square off at 2 p.m. at the Thalhimer Tennis Center in Richmond, Virginia. VCU currently holds a 3-0 edge in the all-time series, and the Rams handed the Lady Flames one of only two home losses in 2021 at the Liberty Tennis Complex.

Palsgrove is a sports reporter. Follow him on Twitter