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Wayne State University Athletics

1
IUP IUP-W (14-10)
4
Winner Wayne State WSUW (24-3)
IUP IUP-W
(14-10)
1
Final
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Wayne State WSUW
(24-3)
Winner
Malak Arafat and Team After Winning vs. IUP (NCAA Round of 16 - 05-12-2023)
Manuela Davies/USTA
The Warriors come to celebrate with Malak Arafat after the freshman clinched the match with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win vs. IUP on Friday.

Match Recap: Women's Tennis | | Matthew Jurek, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Women's Tennis Defeats IUP 4-1 to Earn First Ever Trip to NCAA Quarterfinals

The Warriors defeated Indiana (Pa.) for a second time this season.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Playing in its first NCAA Sweet Sixteen match since 2014, the seventh-ranked Wayne State University women's tennis team (24-3 overall) also won its first ever Sweet Sixteen contest, defeating No. 43-ranked Indiana University of Pennsylvania (14-10 overall) 4-1 on Friday at the USTA National Campus.

The win was the 11th consecutive victory for the Warriors and advanced the team to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the first time in program history.  They lost their 2014 Round of 16 match to eventual champion Armstrong Atlantic.

WSU was re-seeded in sixth entering play in Orlando, taking on the 11th-seeded Crimson Hawks.  Wayne State previously defeated IUP by a 4-3 score on February 19 in Sandusky, Ohio.

DOUBLES
The Green and Gold had to play from behind for much of Friday after dropping the doubles point to the Crimson Hawks for the second time this season.

IUP grabbed two of the three contests.  The lone win for WSU came at the No. 1 spot, as the No. 14-ranked team of Anais Ruyssen (Nantes, France) and Marta Komar (Inowroclaw, Poland) posted a 6-3 triumph over the No. 31-ranked tandem of Katy Graydon and Karolin Kirchtag.  It was the third consecutive win for the WSU juniors over a ranked opposing duo.

Malak Arafat (Alexandria, Egypt) and Dea Gorgidze (Tbilisi, Georgia) dropped a 6-4 decision to the No. 32-ranked Natalie Kmoskova and Joanna Stralka at the second flight, while the third flight WSU pairing of Martyna Szpakowska (Gdansk, Poland) and Shanice Weekes (London, England) lost 6-2 to Laura Dunarova and Lydia Vlachou.  The defeat snapped a 13-match winning streak for the two freshmen.

SINGLES
WSU gained the upper-hand for good in singles play, grabbing all four completed matches to secure its first ever appearance in the quarterfinals round.

Ruyssen, the No. 30-ranked singles player in the nation, downed Kirchtag by matching 6-3 scores in straight sets at the top position.  The win was her ninth consecutive in singles action.

Also winning their 23rd and 14th straight matches, respectively, were Szpakowska and Weekes at the fifth and sixth flights.  Szpakowska notched a 6-2, 6-4 win over Vlachou, while Weekes recorded a pair of 6-2 decisions in dropping Dunarova.  The two victories were critical in turning the tide and lifting the Warriors ahead of the Crimson Hawks for keeps on Friday.

Arafat was the official clinching triumph for Wayne State.  Playing against Stralka at the No. 3 position, she fell 7-5 in the opening set and needed a comeback effort to earn the victory.  The freshman had a 6-3 win in the second set and an even more decisive 6-1 mark in the final set to send the team into Saturday's action.

Komar and Gorgidze did not finish their respective contests at the No. 2 and No. 4 spots.  Komar's line against Kmoskova had a 6-2 loss in the first set, with a 7-5 win in the second set.  She was ahead 2-0 in the final set over her IUP foe.

Gorgidze had the opposite score.  She won 6-2 in the first set against Graydon, before tallying the same 6-2 score in a second set loss.  The score was even at 2-2 in the deciding set when the match ended early.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will play in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the USTA National Campus.  Their opponent will be No. 17-ranked Hawaii Pacific.  The three-seed Sharks advanced via a 4-0 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday.  It will be the first ever meeting between the two programs.

 
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