DES MOINES, Iowa – South Dakota had chances to secure its second match victory of the weekend, but ultimately fell to Drake, 4-3, in a women's tennis dual played Saturday morning inside the Roger Knapp Tennis Center.
 
Habiba Aly and Berta Girbau earned straight set victories at No. 2 and No 6 singles, respectively. Jana Lazarevic gutted out a three-set win over Liza Petushkova (6-2, 6-7, 6-4) as the two teams split the six singles matches.
 
Drake, though, took all three doubles matches to win the doubles point and that proved to be the difference in the match.
 
Aly, a senior, posted a 7-6, 6-1 win over Maria Tatarnikova while Girbau, a sophomore, defeated Kendall Hunt, 6-3, 6-2.
 
Anna Marija Bukina suffered a tough three-set loss at No. 5 singles to Darinka Stephan.
 
"This match was as tough as I knew it would be," coach Brett Barnett said. "Absolute battle between us again.
 
"I'm really proud of how we fought and battled after losing doubles.  Jana, Biba and Berta did a a great job in singles. We had chances on courts and a match point to win the match and just didn't get it done.  We can take away a lot of positives from this and get better and keep improving."
                                                                                                      
South Dakota (1-2) hits the road for three-match swing next weekend facing DePaul on Friday, Northern Illinois on Saturday and Marquette on Sunday.