By outreach@cw.ua.edu (Mike Schwartz)

Alabama women’s tennis team left little-to-no doubt that they were the superior team in both of the team’s match ups during Sunday’s doubleheader. The Crimson Tide took control of both doubles and singles matches throughout the day.

Surging right out of the gates, Alabama completed the clean sweep in doubles match ups against the UAB Blazers. The duo between Maddie Pothoff and Erin Routliffe proved to be lethal as they showed no achilles heel and flashed their dominance in this morning’s matchup with the set victory 6-0. Andie Daniell and Kimberley Gintrand were able to hit their stride and win five-straight games after exchanging their first four games against Reghan Lynch and Hana Sisirak of UAB.

Perhaps the best doubles matchup of the day was between Mckenna Root and Sophie Dodds of the UAB Blazers against Alabama’s Danielle Spielmann and Smith Hinton. After falling behind 3-1 to the Blazers, Spielmann and Hinton navigated through rough waters and put together six-straight wins to take the set.

Singles play was more of the same for Alabama. It was yet another clean sweep for Crimson Tide on all six courts during singles play including three victories by Spielmann, Joanna Savva and Juliana Valero that went 6-0, 6-0.

In Sunday afternoon’s matinee against the Alabama State Hornets, the second and final showdown of the day followed the same pattern for the Crimson Tide. Daniell and Spielmann set the tone for the rest of the day in their doubles matchup victory against Gabriela Lackova and Mirna Curcic, 6-0.

It seemed as the matches progressed the women got stronger and stronger. In singles play, Spielmann, Savva, and Kimberley Gintrand each lost only one game in their two set matches. Spielmann rolled over Reka Szentes of ASU 6-1, 6-0, Savva beat Brankica Orlovic handily 6-0, 6-1, while Gintrand throttled Marija Blazevic 6-1, 6-0.

Juliana Valero put the finishing touches on her individual match with an incredible backhand smash down the far sideline that landed the tennis ball precisely on the line. The freshmen from Colombia seized her match and walked out victorious by a final score of 6-2, 6-1.

Daniell and Smith Hinton were also able to answer the bell and win their respective matches with relative ease. Daniell won her matchup against Marine Cartier 6-2, 6-1 and Hinton beat Lockova 6-3, 6-1.

The team will be back on the court next weekend as the Illinois Fighting Illini travel down to Tuscaloosa this Friday night at 6 p.m. On the following day, the Crimson Tide will face the Washington Huskies in an afternoon matchup at home.

…read more

Source:: The Crimson White Sports