Women’s Tennis: Cajuns Seniors Go Perfect On Senior Day In Win Over PVAMU

LAFAYETTE – It was a perfect senior day with all three Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns women’s tennis team seniors getting wins, as Elena Sava, Abby Johnson and Kelly Drew helped the Cajuns take down the Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers, 7-0, Saturday afternoon at Cajun Courts.
           
The win improves the Cajuns record to 14-7, which gives them the most wins they’ve had in a season since 2013, when they finished 14-12.  It’s also their third win of the season against PVAMU and it drops the Lady Panthers record to 7-16.
           
Sava, Johnson and Drew were joined by sophomore Marina Rodriguez Garcia and freshmen Floriane Picaut and Dana Radovanovic in the win column as the Cajuns dropped only one set throughout the entire day in singles.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Doubles): Louisiana got their final home match off to a great start by quickly taking the doubles point, and the first win of the day for the Cajuns came at No. 3 when Drew and Garcia took down the PVAMU duo of Stacey Lackey and Castellanos, 6-1.  The clinching point came at No. 2 when the Cajuns freshman duo of Picaut and Radovanovic beat the Lady Panther’s pairing of Ruhl and Findley 6-2, to lock up the doubles point.
           
Things were played out at No. 1 and PVAMU’s Rama and Aranguiz were able to beat Sava and Johnson, 6-3, but the Cajuns had already secured the point and their 1-0 lead heading into singles play.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Singles): Senior day began positively for the Cajuns and finished off just the same, with the Cajuns’ seniors taking care of business in their final matches on Cajun Courts.  Sava got the Cajuns their first win in singles, as the senior blew past PVAMU’s Jimena Castellanos without dropping a game, 6-0, 6-0, to put the Cajuns up 2-0.
           
Garcia then snagged yet another win, taking her match at No. 6 in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2, over the Lady Panthers’ Tatiana Ruhl and that win put the Cajuns one away from clinching the match.  The clincher came from Drew, who fought back in her first set to wrestle control of her match against PVAMU’s Stacey Lackey and take the win, 6-4, 6-1, to put the score at 4-0.
           
At No. 5, Johnson made it a perfect three for three on senior day for the Cajuns seniors with a straight set win over PVAMU’s Shaddae Findley, 6-2, 6-4.  It was tied up at 4-4, but Johnson dug deep to take the final two games to snag herself a win in her final match on Cajun Courts.
           
Picaut snagged herself a win, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), in a battle where she held off the late charging Neharika Rama.  After taking the first set with ease, Rama came storming back and at one point was leading against Picaut, but the young Cajuns freshman dug in deep and got a few big points to take things into the tiebreaker.  Picaut won the final three points of the breaker to pull away with the win and it gave the Cajuns a 6-0 lead in the match.
           
In the final match Radovanovic staged a comeback, to put an exclamation point on senior day, when she won a 10-point third set tiebreaker to beat PVAMU’s Constanza Aranguiz, 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.  After dropping the first set, Radovanovic easily took the second set to push things into the third set breaker. 
           
Midway through the breaker it was tied up at 5-5, but Radovanovic took charge from there, winning five of the next seven points, including three straight to push it to 8-5, to come away with the big win and it locked up the Cajuns 7-0 win.

NOTEWORTHY: Garica has now won six straight matches and her singles record sits at 11-5; Johnson won her fourth straight match (5-7 in singles); Drew (9-4 in doubles) and Garcia (9-3 in doubles) won their sixth straight match as a pair in doubles and they’re 9-3 together; Picaut (9-5 in doubles) and Radovanovic (9-4 in doubles) improved to 9-4 together in doubles.
           
The 14 wins is the most they’ve had in a season since finishing with 14 in 2012 and one more win would give them 15 wins which would be the most since 2008, when they finished with 16.

UP NEXT FOR THE CAJUNS: Louisiana next hits the road for their final three matches, starting in San Marcos, Texas where they’ll face off with Sun Belt Conference opponents, Arkansas State on Friday, Apr. 6 and UT Arlington on Saturday, Apr. 7.  The Cajuns will then wrap up the regular season the following weekend in New Orleans, La., when they visit Tulane on Friday, apr. 13.

FOLLOWING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS: Follow the Cajuns on twitter @RaginCajunsWT for updates during the match, links to live stats and the final recap following the day’s action.

Louisiana 7, Prairie View A&M 0
March 31, 2018 at Lafayette, La.
(Cajun Courts)
Doubles:
1.) Rama/Aranguiz (PVAMU) def. Sava/Johnson (LA) 6-3
2.) Picaut/Radovanovic (LA) def. Ruhl/Findley (PVAMU) 6-2
3.) Drew/Garcia (LA) def. Lackey, S./Castellanos (PVAMU) 6-1
Order of Finish: 3, 2*, 1
 
Singles:
1.) Kelly Drew (LA) def. Stacey Lackey (PVAMU) 6-4, 6-1
2.) Floriane Picaut (LA) def. Neharika Rama (PVAMU) 6-2, 7-6 (5)
3.) Elena Sava (LA) def. Jimena Castellanos (PVAMU) 6-0, 6-0
4.) Dana Radovanovic (LA) def. Constanza Aranguiz (PVAMU) 4-6, 6-2, 10-7
5.) Abby Johnson (LA) def. Shaddae Findley (PVAMU) 6-2, 6-4
6.) Marina Rodriguez Garcia (LA) def. Tatiana Rhul (PVAMU) 6-0, 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 6, 1*, 5, 2, 4
 
SIDE MATCHES (Not Effecting the Outcome Of Match):
Kim Yatribi (LA) def. Jessica Lackey (PVAMU) 6-1, 6-1
 
Team Records:
Louisiana: 14-7
PVAMU: 7-16