Women's Tennis Opens 2012 With Narrow Loss to Laredo CC

San Antonio - Trinity's women's tennis team opened up its 2012 regular season schedule with a 5-4 loss to Laredo Community College on Saturday afternoon.

Trinity (0-1) split the six singles matches on the day, but lost two of the three doubles contests to start things off in the morning.

Stephanie Williamson scored a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 6 singles, while Lavinia Bendandi won 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 5 position. 

Thavindra Ekanayake won 6-0, 6-3 at No. 4 singles, and teamed with Mackenzie Knoop at No. 1 doubles.  The duo lost 8-5 in the top spot in doubles.  Knoop also played No. 1 in singles, and lost a tough three-set match that sealed the win for Laredo.

Knoop lost the opening set 6-3, but battled back with a 7-5 win in the second.  Barbora Bozkova of Laredo then beat Knoop 7-5 in the third to take the victory.

Williamson and Melissa Ponder scored Trinity's only doubles victory of the day, jumping out to a 5-0 lead before Laredo's team of Bianca Gonzalez and Melissa Brizuela retired.

Trinity returns to action tomorrow in a busy weekend of home matches.  The Tigers face Texas Lutheran University at noon on Sunday, followed by an evening match against the University of Incarnate Word, at 6:00 p.m.