YSU tennis team wins Horizon again

Associated Press

West Lafayette, Ind.

The Youngstown State women’s tennis team won four singles matches on Sunday to claim its second straight Horizon League Championship.

The Penguins defeated Detroit 4-2 at the Purdue Schwartz Tennis Center.

Wins by Marta Burak, Dominika Lackova, Sofia Macias Mendoza and Julianna Heino propelled the victory. The Titans won two of the three doubles matches.

In the No. 1 spot, Burak dropped her first point to Sasha Nionova before winning the next 12 to close out a 6-1, 6-0 match in about 45 minutes.

Macias Mendoza posted a 6-2, 6-2 win over Nynke Van Der Goot in the No. 6 spot.

Lackova won in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 against Valeryia Kulikovskaya at No. 2. Lackova trailed in the first set 5-2 before rallying with the next five points.

YSU’s Nehel Sahni lost 7-6, 6-3 to Irina Slizoskaya at No. 3.

Heino jumped out to a lead in the first set but dropped it 7-5 to Viktoria Laskutova. In the second, Heino won 6-2.

Heino was down 4-2 before winning two consecutive points to tie the third set at four. Laskutova took a 5-4 lead and was on serve, but Heino broke and then held serve to go ahead 6-5.

Heino took a 40-15 lead, but Laskutova fought off the first championship point. However, Laskutova hit a Heino return into the net a gave the 7-5 set to YSU.

The victory was YSU’s school-record 11th straight to give the Penguins a new season record of 17.

Detroit ends the year at 16-9.