DENTON, Texas (April 23, 2017) – The FIU women's tennis team (21-2) fell to the top-seeded Rice Owls, 4-1, in the finals of the 2017 Conference USA Women's Tennis Championship on Sunday.
Rice (18-5 and No. 37 in the latest Oracle/ITA Women's Tennis National Rankings) took an early 1-0 lead, winning the doubles point as Mina Markovic and Gabriela Ferreira fell to Savannah Durkin and Katherine Ip, 6-0, and Nina Nagode and Andrea Lazaro dropped a 6-2 decision to Lindsey Hodges and Wendy Zhang.
The Panthers drew even at 1-all as Nagode opened singles play with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Fernanda Astete.