WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- The Midwestern State women's tennis team welcomes Findlay (Ohio) to the MSU Tennis Center for the home opener on Wednesday afternoon.

The Mustangs opened the season with a 5-2 victory over Southeastern Oklahoma State as Anda Ghinga, ranked No. 29 in the nation, made a triumphant return to dual-match play. The Romanian sat out last season with a medical redshirt after two seasons as an All-Lone Star Conference performer in singles and doubles.

Ghinga breezed to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Larissa Giraldi at No. 3 singles on Saturday and played No. 2 doubles alongside Jessica Binzari.

The Mustangs lost the doubles points in Durant, Oklahoma, as Sara Gonzalez and Georgia Hosking of Southeastern prevailed 6-4 over Shreya Chakraborty and Sydney Williams at No. 1 doubles, and Milana Voloshyn and Amishi Shukla squeaked past Sofia Giraldo and Micaela McSpadden at No. 3 doubles, 6-4.
Ghinga and Binzari did not complete their match at No. 2 doubles as they were tied, 6-6, against Larissa Giraldi and Jou Chen Chen.

Binzari, who had 30 wins at No. 1 singles over the last two seasons at Coker, made her debut for MSU playing No. 1 singles at Southeastern and clinched the victory with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 triumph.

Giraldo, a freshman from Colombia, played her first collegiate singles match in a regular season dual match and coasted to a victory over Sara Gonzalez of Southeastern, 6-3, 6-2.

Skylar Minns improved her career record at MSU to 7-5 in three-set matches with a come-from-behind 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Voloshyn at No. 5 singles.

Junior Hannah Yip prevailed in a marathon match at No. 2 singles, defeating Hosking, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (9). Yip played nine three-set matches for the Mustangs last spring, and her only victory came against No. 39-ranked Letizia Corsini of Angelo State.

Findlay opened the spring with four consecutive dual-match victories, including a 5-2 win over No. 18-ranked Grand Valley State on Feb. 10 at Findlay. The Oilers are playing six consecutive dual matches away from home. The road trip started with a 4-3 loss to No. 14-ranked Wayne State, and Findlay was defeated 7-0 by No. 12-ranked Indianapolis before venturing south to face Southeastern Oklahoma State and Midwestern State.

The Oilers broke into the Top 25 for the first time this season on Feb. 14, when the Intercollegiate Tennis Association had Findlay ranked No. 25 in the nation.

Freshman Valentina Salek had a seven-match winning streak snapped when she fell to Diane Flament of Indianapolis, 6-2, 6-1, at No. 1 singles on Saturday.

Junior Elina Ivanova was named first team All-G-MAC last season with a 15-8 record in singles and a 19-6 mark in doubles.

Senior Emily Hadler was also first team All-G-MAC with a 12-7 record in singles and a 20-5 record in doubles last season. Hadler is 4-2 in singles this spring following a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Tyffaine Pais of Indianapolis at No. 3 singles.

Hadler finished the 2022-23 season ranked No. 20 in Division II in doubles with teammate Zuzanna Krygier.

Midwestern State is facing No. 7- ranked West Alabama at the UT Tyler Invitational on Friday at 2:30 p.m. and No. 18-ranked Auburn-Montgomery on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The Mustangs close out the event on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. with a dual match against West Florida.
 

--MSUMustangs.com--