#19 RAMS BLAST MONARCHS OF ODU, 5-2

RICHMOND, Va. – Life on the road can sometimes change things, especially in college athletics.

So when the Virginia Commonwealth University women's tennis team took its eight-game winning streak on the road to conference rival Old Dominion, the Rams knew it wouldn't be easy.

However, they were wrong as the Black & Gold rolled to a 5-2 win over the Monarchs to improve to 12-2 on the year with the only two losses coming to top-10 ranked Duke and Clemson.

Against ODU, VCU blasted its way through the doubles competition with wins of 8-5, 8-4 and 8-1 to take a 1-0 advantage.

Senior Olena Leonchuk (Kiev, Ukraine) helped the Rams quickly secure the victory as she steamrolled Marija Citic, 6-0 and 6-1. Classmate Laura Burns (Hertford, England) then picked up a 6-2, 6-1 win and sophomore Alex Bara (Oradea, Romania) wrapped it up with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Diana Ivanova.

Junior Kateryna Yergina (Kiev, Ukraine) concluded the Black & Gold's scoring with a straight set win over Irina Dementyeva at #3 singles, 6-2, 6-1.

The Rams will look to push their winning streak into double-digits when it heads to Texas for a two-match swing against TCU on Thurday, March 18th and SMU on Saturday, March 20th.   

#19 VCU 5, #73 Old Dominion 2

Doubles:
1. Ana Bara/Hjertquist def. Fahoum/Pires, 8-5
2. Burns/Yergina def. Dobrowolska/Dementieva, 8-4
3. Alex Bara/Leonchuk def. Ivanova/Citic, 8-1
Order of finish: 3,1,2

Singles:
1. #18 Nadine Fahoum (ODU) def. Hjertquist, 7-5, 6-2
2. Joanna Dobrowolska (ODU) def. Ana Bara, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3
3. Yergina def. Irina Dementyeva (ODU), 6-2, 6-1
4. Alex Bara def. Diana Ivanova (ODU), 6-0, 6-1
5. Burns def. Juliana Pires (ODU), 6-2, 6-1
6. Leonchuk def. Marija Citic (ODU), 6-0, 6-1
Order of finish: 6,5,4,3,1,2