McMaster 4, Waterloo 3
 
The women tennis Warriors began their 2019 campaign on a road trip to Stoney Creek, Saturday to face the women Marauders. This season's team has a fresh new look with five of the eight women being rookies. Even so, the outcome was uncannily similar to that of last year with both schools even at 3-3 and the winning match in the hands of their respective #6 players. Again like last year, the Warriors were not to come up on top.

The Warriors had a chance to gain the doubles point. Their no.1 pair of Adema Tursunkhanova (Almaty/) and Vanessa Seto (Richmond Hill/) lost 6-8. Seto was playing with a strained thigh muscle and was restricted in her movement. Warriors no. 3 pair another rookie team won convincingly 8-1. Were the no 1 able to pull off a win, the doubles point could have gone Waterloo's way.

Waterloo's wins came at #1, #4 and #5.   Returning grad student Nathalie Skaf (Kitchener/) playing at #3 had a three setter but couldn't quite get the win.

Results

Doubles:

Adema Tursunkhanova (Almaty/)/Vanessa Seto (Richmond Hill/) lost to Mia Tamindzija/Adele Lee  6-8
Nathalie Skaf (Kitchener/)/Nancy Wu (Scarborough/) lost to Janna Malone/Julia Schuster   3-8
Savanna Cornfield (Vancouver/)/Evi Zafiris bt Meghan Mazer/Alina Morales-Neyra   8-1
 
Singles:
Tursunkhanova bt Tamindzija  6-3, 6-1
Zafiris lost to Malone 1-6, 1-6
Skaf lost to Schuster 4-6, 7-6,(5) 4-6
Wu won over Lee 3-6, 3-4 ret'd
Cornfield bt Mazer 7-5, 6-0
Eva Xie (Markham/) lost to Morales-Neyra 3-6, 3-6
 
Toronto 7, Waterloo 0

On Sunday the Warriors had the Blues, a result of coming up against Toronto, a team with skilled and experienced players. The Waterloo women are by no means without talent and skills of their own albeit, still to be developed but they were in the main, no match for the Toronto team.  Scores though, were not as one-sided as in years past.  Warriors #1 Tursunkhanova took her Blues counterpart to three close sets losing 4-6 in the third. As well Tursunkhanova and doubles partner had a win in their match.  Another noteworthy effort came from Sunday's #6 Savanna Cornfield (Vancouver/). The rookie lost the first set 6-0 but came storming back to win the second set only to lose 12-14 in the third set tiebreak.

Though the warriors were not able to pick up a point, they were not as overwhelmed as the overall score indicates. This weekend challenge could only have done them good.
The Warriors next matches are on the weekend at the Waterloo Tennis Club against York U on Saturday and Brock U on Sunday.

Results

Doubles:
Adema Tursunkhanova (Almaty/)/Vanessa Seto (Richmond Hill/) bt Mara Stroe/Salma Dessovky  8-5
Nancy Wu (Scarborough/)/Nathalie Skaf (Kitchener/) lost to Pia Jhattu/Andrea Kuntjoro   1-8
Savanna Cornfield (Vancouver/)/Evi Zafiris lost to Ally Boone/Kimberley Lai  4-8
 
Singles:
Tursunkhanova lost to Stroe  6-3, 3-6, 4-6
Zafiris lost to Jhattu 1-6, 1-6
Skaf lost to Dessovky 4-6, 1-6
Wu lost to Kuntjoro 1-6, 1-6
Seto lost to Tianan Xie 2-6, 3-6
Cornfield lost to Niki Karol 0-6, 6-2, 12-14