UMBC

Baltimore—After a shaky shart, the UMBC women’s tennis team recovered and defeated visiting Howard, 5-2, in the first match played at the UMBC Tennis Complex in 2010.

The Retrievers snapped a brief two-match slide and improved to 5-4 on the season.

“The women knew they had a tough match as Howard was undefeated coming into today's match,” head coach Rob Hubbard said. “While our doubles was lacking a bit they turned the tide quickly in the singles. I was proud of the way they bounced back from the poor start and competed well in the singles."

Howard captured the doubles point, taking narrow 8-5 decisions at the Nos. 1 and 2 slots. UMBC’s Brazilian duo of senior Barbara Couto (Teresopolis, Brazil) and freshman Lorena Valente (Florianopolos, Brazil) won at No. 3 doubles, 8-4 to improve to a perfect 9-0 in doubles competition this fall.

Senior Alice Chen (North Potomac, Md./Quince Orchard), Valente, and junior Emily Mannix (Hillsborough, N.J.) each won in straight sets at the Nos. 2, 3, and 4 singles slots to give UMBC a 3-2 lead. The Retrievers had to work overtime to clinch the match, as No. 5 Heidi Danielsson (Jonkoping, Sweden) and No. 6 Couto posted three-set victories. Danielsson defeated Alyssa Works, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, while Couto overcame Anne Akhimien, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

The team heads to Texas for spring break with a match vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi set for March 16 and a contest at UT-San Antonio on March 19.