The Florida A&M tennis team (1-4) faced a tough challenge at home against Troy Feb.12, falling to 6-1. The rattlers struggled heavily in this match-up against the trojans even failing to secure a doubles point and finding a singular win from solos.
Troy is now 7-0 against the rattlers In the history of this match up. In their match up prior to this one Troy defeated them with a score of 1-6 and 2024 was the closest the rattlers got to victory, with a 3-4 loss. They secured the doubles point taking wins in two of the three doubles matches but fell short in singles. Freshman Gabrielle Pierce secured the Rattlers’ only win of the match, marking her first singles victory. She was awarded the win by forfeit while tied 4–4 in the second set.
Coach Nikki was asked about the performance of her players in this dual. “I thought the fight was there, but we just didn’t execute like we needed to.”
Freshman Alyynah Thomas was one of those players showing grit, losing her first set then against Alexia Zarate falling behind 0-5 in her second. She battled back to even the score at 5-5, but she ultimately came short and dropped the set Coach Nikki then voiced her thoughts on what they will do as a team from now on saying,“just continue to work. We know we have tough teams coming up – it’s going to be a grind and we just have to be willing to do that.”
This loss brings the rattlers to 1-5 now as they set to face both North Florida and Charleston Southern this weekend hoping things go more positively on the road.
