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Schedule

vs

BB

vs Sam Houston

Thursday, March 28,

4:00 PM ET

vs

SB

vs Louisiana Tech

Thursday, March 28,

6:00 PM ET

at

TRACK

at Raleigh Relays

Thursday, March 28,

8:09 PM ET

at

TRACK

at Hornet Open

Friday, March 29

at

MTEN

at Florida Atlantic

March 27,

Final

4

3

at

WLAX

at No. 11 Florida

March 27,

Final

3

23

vs

SB

vs Virginia

March 26,

Final

1

3

vs

BB

vs No. 12 Wake Forest

March 26,

Final

6

7

Full Schedule
Friday, January 13
Fort Myers, Fla.
5:15 PM

Liberty University

4
vs
3

Middle Tennessee

Ode Mitre Delivers in Last Match, Lady Flames Down Blue Raiders 4-3 Image

Ode Mitre Delivers in Last Match, Lady Flames Down Blue Raiders 4-3

1/13/2023 9:30:35 PM | Women's Tennis

Liberty’s Micaela Ode Mitre delivered a three-set victory in the final match on court, lifting the Lady Flames to a 4-3 win over the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Friday evening at the FGCU Tennis Complex.

Ode Mitre and her counterpart, Rutuja Chaphalkar, split sets before the MTSU freshman took a 3-1 lead in the third set. Ode Mitre surged ahead to a 5-4 lead by winning four of the next five games. Trailing 30-15 in the next game, she broke Chaplhalkar’s serve and took the match, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, giving Liberty the one-point win.

Liberty is 1-0 on the year, and MTSU falls to 0-1 in what was the season opener for both teams. Friday’s season opener started at 5:15 p.m., nearly five hours after its originally scheduled start time of 12:30 p.m., due to inclement weather in the Fort Myers area.

Thoughts From Head Coach Jeff Maren

“We showed a lot of grit tonight. Facing a good team in windy conditions, we had to show how determined and driven we are to bring out the best in ourselves when facing adversity. I’m proud of how we competed. We also learned a lot about how we can improve as well. Overall, it was a good start!”

Liberty 4, Middle Tennessee 3

Singles Competition

  1. M. Juliana P. Romero (LIBERTYW) def. Love-Star Alexis (MTSU) 6-2, 6-3
  2. Sana Garakani (MTSU) def. Alexandra Almborg (LIBERTYW) 6-3, 6-2
  3. Muskan Gupta (MTSU) def. Marina Davtyan (LIBERTYW) 6-3, 6-4
  4. Esther Lovato (LIBERTYW) def. Noelle Mauro (MTSU) 6-1, 6-0
  5. Lilly-Sophie Schmidt (MTSU) def. Tiffany Nguyen (LIBERTYW) 7-5, 6-2
  6. Micaela Ode Mitre (LIBERTYW) def. Rutuja Chaphalkar (MTSU) 6-2, 1-6, 6-4

Doubles Competition

  1. M. Juliana P. Romero/Marina Davtyan (LIBERTYW) def. Muskan Gupta/Noelle Mauro (MTSU) 6-3
  2. Alexandra Almborg/Esther Lovato (LIBERTYW) vs. Love-Star Alexis/Rutuja Chaphalkar (MTSU) 3-5, unfinished
  3. Tiffany Nguyen/Micaela Ode Mitre (LIBERTYW) def. Sana Garakani/Lilly-Sophie Schmidt (MTSU) 6-1

Liberty 1-0

Middle Tennessee 0-1

Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (4,2,1,3,5,6)

T-3:00

How It Happened

• Liberty opened the match by claiming the doubles session with wins in the No. 3 and No. 1 slots. The Lady Flames’ most successful duo so far during the 2022-23 season, Tiffany Nguyen and Micaela Ode Mitre, defeated Sana Garakani and Lilly-Sophie Schmidt 6-1. Nguyen and Ode Mitre picked their team-best eighth doubles triumph of the year against only one loss.

• Liberty’s No. 1 unit, Maria Juliana Parra Romero and Marina Davtyan, also took care of business with a 6-3 decision over Muskan Gupta and Noelle Mauro on court one.

• Leading 1-0, the Lady Flames’ lead grew to a two-point advantage when Esther Lovato downed Mauro in the No. 4 singles contest in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0. Lovato bolsters her season record to 11-1 overall.

• The Blue Raiders’ first point of the evening came from Garakani on court two, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Alexandra Almborg of the Lady Flames.

• Parra Romero continued her winning ways for Liberty with a 6-2, 6-3 decision over Love-Star Alexis of MTSU for a 3-1 edge. The sophomore from Colombia bolsters her overall singles mark to 12-3.

• MTSU took the No. 3 and No. 5 singles matches to even it up at 3-all Gupta bested Davtyan 6-3, 6-4, followed by a 7-5, 6-2 triumph from Schmidt over Nguyen in the No. 5 position.

• Ode Mitre’s come-from-behind win in the third set gives her nine singles wins on the season.

• Prior to tonight, Liberty’s last 4-3 victory came on March 5, 2022 at William & Mary. Ode Mitre’s doubles partner, Tiffany Nguyen, clinched that match against the Tribe with a three-set victory 314 days ago.

• This is the Lady Flames’ first-ever win over the Blue Raiders. The all-time series is now knotted at 1-1. Both matches have been decided by a 4-3 score.

• Liberty improves to 10-13 all-time in spring dual match openers. The Lady Flames are 7-3 in season openers over the last 10 seasons.

Next Up

• Liberty will meet Florida International (0-0) on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. The match will be contested at the FGCU Tennis Complex.

• The Lady Flames are 0-2 all-time against the FIU Panthers. FIU edged Liberty 4-3 in the most recent matchup nearly three years ago (Feb. 7, 2020) at the FIU Tennis Courts.