{"id":158510,"date":"2026-01-31T23:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158510\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T23:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:46:08","slug":"tennis-downs-oakland-4-3-to-tie-program-record-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158510\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis Downs Oakland, 4-3, to Tie Program Record Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photos<\/a>\u00a0| Highlights<\/a><\/p>\n

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) <\/p>\n

— For just the third time in the program’s 49-year history, the Eastern Michigan University tennis team has captured victories in its first six matches of a season as the Eagles tallied a 4-3 home win over visiting Oakland University Saturday, Jan. 31, inside the Chippewa Club in Ypsilanti to extend its record to 6-0 on the year. The Eagles (6-0) jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the scoreboard and clinched the victory before the Golden Grizzlies (1-2) won the final three bouts for the final score. Eastern is now tied with the 2002-03 and 1983-84 squads for the best start in program history at 6-0.
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\n“[It was a] huge challenge in the doubles point and we really rose to the occasion,” Head Coach Ryan Kucera<\/a> said following the win. “All three teams had to play aggressive and push through some challenging moments. We handled their shots well, especially in the end.<\/p>\n

“In singles, we were fortunate to get great performances from Cyl (Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya) and Regina (Mendez Carre\u00f1o) to close it out,” Kucera continued. “The fun part about this winning streak is every team member has risen to the occasion in different moments, and we have also learned a lot from each match. The team and each member should be very proud of our culture and growth throughout this season so far. We will use this match the way we have used the others: to continue to grow and push forward!”

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\nHOW IT HAPPENED

\nEastern battled for a hard-fought doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead. The No. 1 team of Lara Diaz Zayas<\/a> (Mar de Ajo, Argentina\/SEADEA) and Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya<\/a> (Serang, Indonesia\/SMAN 2 Kota Serang) earned the first half of the point as they combined for a 6-3 victory before No. 2 team of Matilde Parreira<\/a> (Leiria, Portugal\/Escola Secund\u00e1ria Afonso Lopes) and Sabrina Tolstova<\/a> (Odesa, Ukraine\/Tennisquick Los Cristianos) combined for a 6-4 win after trailing 3-2. The No. 3 team of Iva Daneva<\/a> (Kavadarci, North Macedonia\/DSU Sportska Akademija) and Regina Mendez Carre\u00f1o (Los Cabos, Mexico\/Picacho McGregor) were tied, 5-5, when their match was abandoned as the Eagles had clinched the doubles point for the sixth time in as many matches this spring.

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\nThe Eagles’ lead grew to 2-0 before the first singles match began as an injury in the Oakland lineup forced a forfeit at No. 6 with Parreira earning the win. Eastern followed that up with two consecutive wins, first by Mendez Carre\u00f1o, who scored a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 5, before Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya took a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 2 to clinch the match for the Eagles and secure their sixth win of the season. With the team result no longer in doubt, the visitors would go on to win the final three matches of the day to close out the scoring with EMU on top, 4-3.

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\nNOTING SINGLES PLAY

\n\u00bb Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya<\/a> bounced back from her first loss of the spring season with a dominant win, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 2. The win, which also moved her to 2-0 at home this spring, moved her to 8-2 on the year.

\n\u00bb Regina Mendez Carre\u00f1o jumped back into the win column in quick fashion as she scored a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 5. The win halted a run of two consecutive matches without a victory that included a three-set loss at Youngstown State and an abandoned match at St. Francis (Pa.) that she was leading at the time.

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\nNOTING DOUBLES PLAY

\n\u00bb Eastern has captured the doubles point in all six matches played this spring.

\n\u00bb Lara Diaz Zayas<\/a> and Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya<\/a> won their fifth consecutive doubles match following a 6-4 loss in the opener with Cleveland State. The duo is 7-4 this year together.

\n\u00bb Matilde Parreira<\/a> and Sabrina Tolstova<\/a> remained perfect this spring as the duo is now 5-0 with one unfinished match. The freshmen were 4-8 in the fall before going on their current winning streak.

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\nNOTING THE TEAM

\n\u00bb With the win, the Eagles remained undefeated and moved to 6-0 while the Golden Grizzlies fell to 1-2.

\n\u00bb Eastern improved to 18-3 all-time against Oakland and avenged a 5-2 loss last year that snapped a two-match winning streak in the series. The Eagles improved to 13-2 all-time against the Golden Grizzlies when hosting the match in Ypsilanti.

\n\u00bb The Eagles are 3-0 this season against fellow Michigan schools and improved to 105-114 all-time in “Mitten Matches”.

\n\u00bb The win improved the program’s all-time record to 551-467 as it is currently playing its 49th varsity season.

\n\u00bb At 6-0, Eastern has tied the program record for best start to a season as the 2002-03 and 1983-84 squads each started 6-0 as well. A win at Michigan State Sunday, Feb. 1, would break the tie and push this year’s squad to the top spot by itself.

\n\u00bb The win brought the Eagles’ current win streak to nine consecutive matches when including the final three matches of the 2025 season. The nine-match winning streak ties for the second-longest in program history with the nine recorded in the 2017-18 season and sits five off the record of 14 set in the 2001-02 campaign.

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\nUp Next

\nThe Eagles return to action Sunday, Feb. 1, when they travel north to face the Spartans of Michigan State University inside the MSU Indoor Tennis Center in East Lansing, Mich. The intrastate battle is set to begin at 2 p.m.

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\nFollow Us

\nStay up to date with EMU tennis by following the team on its social media channels. The team can be found on Instagram (@emu_tennis), X (@EMUEaglesTennis), and Facebook (EMUTennis).

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\nEastern Michigan def. Oakland, 4-3

\n#1: Nisa Bulut (O) def. Lara Diaz Zayas<\/a>, 6-4, 6-2

\n#2: Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya<\/a> (EM) def. Martyna Piechowicz, 6-3, 6-4

\n#3: Oliwia Klimas (O) def. Sabrina Tolstova<\/a>, 6-2, 6-3

\n#4: Edie Hammonds (O) def. Pehal Kharadkar<\/a>, 7-5, 6-1

\n#5: Regina Mendez Carre\u00f1o (EM) def. Tara Montreuil, 6-2, 6-1

\n#6: Matilde Parreira<\/a> (EM) won by forfeit

\nOrder of Finish: 6, 5, 2, 3, 1, 4

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\nDoubles

\n#1: Lara Diaz Zayas<\/a>\/Cylova Zuleyka Hukmasabiyya<\/a> (EM) def. Charlotte Holmes\/Martyna Piechowicz, 6-3

\n#2: Matilde Parreira<\/a>\/Sabrina Tolstova<\/a> (EM) def. Edie Hammonds\/Emilia Jarvinen, 6-4

\n#3: Iva Daneva<\/a>\/Regina Mendez Carre\u00f1o (EM) vs. Nisa Bulut\/Oliwia Klimas (O), 5-5 unfinished

\nOrder of Finish: 1, 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photos\u00a0| Highlights YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) — For just the third time in the program’s 49-year history, the Eastern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-158510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}