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Sofiia Paladi Cheering
3
Liberty LIB (10-6)
4
Winner Lipscomb LIP (7-7)
Liberty LIB
(10-6)
3
Final
4
Lipscomb LIP
(7-7)
Winner

Match Recap: Women's Tennis |

Women’s Tennis Knocks Off #73 Liberty in 4-3 Battle

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Lipscomb women's tennis welcomed the #73 Liberty Flames to Nashville and the Ensworth High School Tennis Center on Saturday night for a crucial conference matchup. The Bisons brought down the Flames 4-3 after a behemoth of a match that lasted nearly four hours.
 
"We've really been talking for the past two weeks – since Belmont – about not playing scared tennis," said head coach Jamie Aid. " I feel like up 'til now we have held back a bit. This is a really young team and we're stepping into some spots and situations that we didn't think that we were going to be stepping into, so I thought that in singles tonight that's the way that they played: nobody was scared. It was awesome to finally see them just go out there and play tennis."
 
The contest began with Liberty claiming an early lead by securing the doubles points with 6-3 wins on courts one and three over the partnerships of Sasha Dobranos and Anja Trbeznik and Liza Diachenko and Perri Howard respectively. The freshman pairing of Sofiia Paladi and Alina Cherniaieva were up 5-2 over their Flames foes at the time the point was decided.
 
Things looked tense moving into singles play as only three of the Bisons secured a win in the first set of their matches. However, two of these three went on to claim straight-set victories over their opponents.
 
The Flames looked to be running away with things after claiming two wins on courts three and four to extend their lead to 3-0. Anja Trbeznik fell 6-4, 6-1 to her for on court three and Liza Diachenko was overcome by her own foe 6-1, 6-4 shortly after. 

"We had incredible leadership from our fifth-year senior Liza (Diachenko) tonight," Aid continued. "She has a hard-fought match that didn't go her way tonight and immediately got on the line to cheer on her team and get the energy level up. I'm so proud to see that leadership from our fifth-year player."

The energy from their teammates was clearly fely by the Bisons still engaged in battle as Sasha Dobranos went ahead and put the Bisons on the board with a massive 6-3, 6-2 win at the top spot over the 2022 ASUN Freshman of the Year, Maria Juliana Parra Romero, further emboldening the squad and improving her singles record to 11-3 on the year.
 
Alina Cherniaieva felt the momentum from court five and brought home another point for Lipscomb with her 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 win to bring the squad within one point of Liberty's lead. Her fellow freshman Taisia Yakunina claimed the Purple and Gold's third point of the match on court six (6-4, 7-6(7-2)) to pull the two teams tied with just one more match to finish.
 
With the focus of the facility centered on court two, Sofiia Paladi engaged in a drawn-out battle with her Flames opponent. After taking the first set 6-3 and dropping the second 6-0, Paladi put up an enormous fight in the third set, which dragged on with several rallies that lasted upwards of two minutes. Paladi emerged with a 7-5 victory in the third set to claim her eighth singles victory of the season and clinch the match with a final point that lasted just over three minutes.
 
"I told Sofiia on the bench, 'Win or lose we're proud of you,' and she fought her tail off," finished Aid. "They were all going after it tonight – one of Sofiia's points was, I think, an 82-ball rally and the fight never stopped. This team fought really hard tonight and we just happened to prevail."
 
 
LIPSCOMB v. LIBERTY BOX SCORE
 
UP NEXT
Lipscomb women's tennis will return to action on Friday, March 24 when they head to Clarksville, Tenn. to face off with Austin Peay at 10am CT.
 
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