Hurricanes Fall to Panthers

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s tennis team (0-2) dropped its cross-town battle to the FIU Panthers (1-0), 4-0, on Saturday afternoon at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.

The match opened with play on two doubles courts, due to only five eligible players taking the court in for the Hurricanes. FIU grabbed a 6-0 shutout on court one from Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Valery Gynina over Jaquelyn Ogunwale and Raquel Gonalez to notch the doubles point.

The Panthers went into singles with a court win due to no matchup on court six and led 2-0. Despite a strong first set performance on three courts, FIU took back-to-back courts to earn the match win.

On court five, Petja Drame claimed the 6-3, 6-3 win over Savannah Webster, while No. 80 Khairutdinova forced a third set to win 1-6, 7-5, 6-0 against Ogunwale.

The Hurricanes will travel to Gainesville, Fla., for ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 26-27, where they will take on No. 28 LSU.