Box Score

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -

The LMU women's tennis team (1-1) opened the home portion of the spring schedule with a victory on Thursday, defeating UC Riverside (0-2) by a score of 6-1 at the LMU Tennis Center.

LMU swept all three doubles matches to earn the doubles point. Jessica Perez, who would play #1 singles for LMU, teamed with Kristine Kouyoumjian to dispatch UCR's Pattugalan/Pham, 6-1, on court one, while the teams of Andrea Crespo / Ellie Grossman and Anna Romeka / Lisa Piller recorded victories on courts two and three, respectively.

The Lions played extremely well as a team on Thursday, recording victories on five of the six singles courts. Crespo was first to finish, defeating Courtney Pattugalan, 6-1, 6-1, on court two to hand LMU the 2-0 lead. Kouyoumjian's 6-1, 6-2 victory on court three pushed LMU just one singles victory from a team win, but UCR's Tamilla Vaksman kept the Highlanders alive with a 6-2, 6-3 victory on the sixth court to run the team totals to 3-1 in favor of LMU.

Freshman Anna Romeka sealed the Lion victory on court four, recording the 6-3, 6-2 victory over Natalie Penner.

Although the match was officially over in terms of team score, Perez and Piller were still busy battling opponents in very close matches. Perez won her first set by a count of a 7-6 (2) tiebreaker, but settled in nicely to take down Chloe Pham 6-1 in the second set. Piller had little trouble in her first set, defeating Caroline Hall, 6-3, but saw her opponent surge for a late comeback tiebreaking victory in the second, 7-6 (3). Forced into a decisive third set, Piller came out strong and never looked back, running away with the 6-0 decision to ultimately take the match.

LMU will return to action on January 29 when it travels to #1 UCLA for a match at 1:30 p.m.