Last Friday, FAU women’s tennis (8-13, 0-1 C-USA) fell short 6-1 in their regular-season finale against the No. 38 Florida International University Panthers, who have lost only once in the 20 matchups between the two programs all time. Despite loss in their last home game, the FAU seniors still dented FIU’s victory by winning a double on court one and singles on court two.

FIU (15-4, 2-1 C-USA) hopped out to an early lead claiming courts three and two to win the doubles point and give them a 1-0 advantage on the scoreboard. That was until FAU’s pair, senior Martina Kudelova and freshman Carla Galmiche, won on court one 6-3 to even the score at 1-1 at the best two-out-of-three doubles. 

The Owls battled throughout the singles games but eventually went down 4-0 and couldn’t mount a comeback to win the game. Coach Gonzalez called not to stop the game and wanted his players to continue playing before Galmiche, the 2023 Owlspys All-Freshman Award Winner, dropped her third set in singles 6–1 leaving only court two in the battle. 

The team fought and avoided the complete shutdown by FIU thanks to senior Katerina Filip. Filip, who earned second-team All-C-USA honors, was the last remaining player for FAU on court two, and she closed her regular season with a win by the scores of 6-3, 2-6, 10-8 to end the match at 6-1 and finished with a record of 6-2 in her last eight singles matches.

Kudelova also won the final home doubles match of her five-season career at FAU. She was named the C-USA Freshman of the Year in 2019 and earned First Team All-Conference honors as a junior in 2022.

Both seniors, Kuledova and Filip, were honored by Florida Atlantic University and their teammates after the FIU game at the Kimberly V. Strauss Tennis Center.

The Owls will now turn their focus to preparation throughout the following week before they travel for the 2023 Women’s Tennis Championships games in Denton, Texas, from April 20 to 23.

Gasner Delvarin Jr. is a contributing writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected]