Orlando, Fla. - The St. Thomas Aquinas College Women's Tennis team kicked off its spring season, dropping a 4-3 decision to Hampton University on Tuesday at the USTA National Campus.

STAC slips to 7-3 on the season, while Hampton improves to 4-2.

STAC opened the day, losing two out of three doubles matches, as the Pirates No. 1 Diana Starodubtseva & Serena Bryan defeated Kateryna Kryuchkova & Sun Zhuoxuan, 6-1 followed by the Spartans No. 2 Elita Silins & Courtney Fyvie besting Sofia Sokolova & Melis Sakiroglu 7-5. The team of Masa Mitic & Meiri Okuwaki doubled up Mar Caneves Bufi & Elise Semmartin, 6-3 to take the all-important first point.
 
Once the squads turned to singles competition, STAC tied things up at 1-1 with No. 3 Elise Semmartin blanking Sofia Sokolova 6-0, 6-0. However, Meiri Okuwaki triumphed over Elita Silins 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 to regain the lead at 2-1 for Hampton. No. 1 Diana Starodubtseva then defeated Courtney Fyvie 6-0, 6-3 to put the Pirates on the brink of victory at 3-1. Spartan Mar Caneves Bufi held serve against Masa Mitic 6-1, 6-4 at No. 5 to temporarily keep the match going, 3-2. Unfortunately, Hampton clinched things at No. 4 singles with Serena Bryan beating Kateryna Kryuchkova in three sets 4-6, 6-0, 6-3. No. 6 Sun Zhuoxuan bested Melis Sakiroglu 3-6, 7-4 (4), 1-0 (4) to narrow the deficit and defeat to 4-3.

STAC 4/HAMPTON 3 - OFFICIAL RESULTS