• Box Score

MONROEVILLE, Pa. (Feb. 1) – Junior Anastassiya Zherdeva (Almaty, Kazakhstan/Gumnasia Number 60) earned a three-set win at third singles on Tuesday afternoon to clinch a 4-3 match victory for the No. 8 Vulcans in their spring opener against Duquesne at the Club Sports and Life.

With the win, the California University of Pennsylvania tennis team improves to 5-0 overall this season. Meanwhile, Duquesne remains winless this spring at 0-2.

The Dukes, who are members of the Atlantic-10 Conference, claimed the doubles point after winning two of three matches in doubles play. Sophomore Jade Pondicas (Johannesburg, South Africa/British International Distance) and senior Laurie Navarro (Eysus, France/Jules Supervielle) earned an 8-3 victory at third doubles over Duquesne's Tara Majdalani and Alexandra Assaf. Junior transfers Franziska Steinhardt (Bad Lausick, Germany/St. Augustin Gymnasium) and Annabel Pieschl (Gothenburg, Sweden/Katrinelund) suffered an 8-5 loss to Samantha Noble and Judy Li at the first position, while Zherdeva and junior Axelle Fernandez (Toulouse, France/Institut Familial) dropped their match to Ana Mungo and Megan O'Sullivan by an 8-6 count.

Steinhardt earned a 6-3, 7-6 victory against Mungo while playing at the first singles for the first time this season and 20th-ranked Pieschl posted a 6-4, 6-4 win versus Noble at the second spot. Pondicas, who is also nationally-ranked in singles, claimed a three-set victory, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, over Majdalani at fifth singles.

Cal U returns to action tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 2, when it travels to face Youngstown State at 12 p.m. The Penguins are one of eight NCAA Division I teams on the Vulcans' spring schedule this season.