Tennis looking to bounce back after dismal season

The first fall tournament for the Panthers tennis team can be characterized as successful.

In the Milwaukee Tennis Classic back on Sept. 13 through Sept. 15, FIU was victorious in 11 singles matches and picked up five doubles victories.

“We played better than I thought, and these girls did well in supporting each other in the first week of practice and we only had three practices together before we left for the tournament,” Head Coach Katarina Petrovic said.

With only three returning players from last season and five newcomers, the Panthers got off to a strong start on day one and never looked back.

Day 1 started off with a bang as the Panthers took two of three doubles matches over Western Michigan and went undefeated in Singles, winning all five singles matches over host Marquette University.

On day two, FIU stayed undefeated in singles sweeping their four singles matches over Colorado State, and splitting their two doubles matches winning one and losing one against Marquette.

The Panthers concluded day three with two singles victories, while also losing two others against Western Michigan and winning both their doubles matches over Colorado State.

After a stellar freshman season, Sophomore Carlotta Orlando was expected by Petrovic to have the title as Singles Champion. It was Freshman Nina Nagode who stole the show in singles, while being named the tournament’s single’s champion. The freshman went 3-0 over the weekend in her first taste of tennis at the college level. The Slovenia native also went 2-1 in doubles matches with the lone loss on day two with Orlando; losing 8-4 to Marquette’s duo of Ana Primienta and Erin Gebes.

“I was thinking she would have tougher competition but she won all her matches, she stole the singles champion title from Carlotta [Orlando],” Petrovic said.

“I didn’t play for one year because of the NCAA rules so the first match was hard for me but every match I played after I felt better and more confident,” Nagode said.

Another freshman went through the tournament without a defeat in singles. Freshman Kamila Pavelkova went 3-0 over the weekend, winning a match on each day of the tournament all in straight sets.

“These are really good freshmen, I don’t know but maybe they could be better than me,” Orlando said.

With success from the newcomers, Petrovic expected Orlando to perform well, and that she did. The Italy native, who lead the team last year in singles victories, went 2-1 with the loss on day three in a match that was moved to indoors, where Petrovic and Orlando put the sophomore at a disadvantage.

“The first two singles matches were on clay courts which I like, and the last single I didn’t play as well, because it was raining we moved to indoor and on that court it was faster and I couldn’t play as well,” Orlando said.

“The indoor court is too fast for her style of play so that really put her at a disadvantage,” Petrovic said.

Despite the singles loss, Petrovic was impressed with Orlando especially with her picking up two doubles victories, as last season Orlando experienced the growing pains of playing doubles matches.

“Carlotta was here in the summer working during Summer School with the coaches to get in shape and I think it paid off,” Petrovic said.

“I’m really happy with doubles, I feel like I improved a lot on the court and I feel more confident now,” Orlando said. “We lost one doubles match with Nina [Nagode], so we still got to know each other better on the court.”

The Panthers won’t be in action again until Oct. 18 when they participate in the ITA Regionals in Athens, Ga.