Broncos Fall in Conference Opener at Air Force

Sunday, March 17

USAF Academy, Colo.

2:00 PM

Boise State

Air Force

Photo by: Boise State Media Relations

3/17/2019 8:22:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Courtesy: Boise State Athletics

USAFA, Colo. - Lilian Poling and Wiktoria Nosek recorded singles victories Sunday afternoon to lead Boise State during a 5-2 loss at Air Force to open Mountain West Conference play. The Broncos came up short after losing the doubles point 2-1 even with Poling and Wilhelmina Palmer winning their doubles contest on court one and with Poling and Nosek winning in singles. The loss moved Boise State to 6-5 overall and 0-1 in conference with a match at Washington State on the slate for next Saturday.

Doubles was a battle with the deciding point coming down to a tiebreaker on court three. Boise State claimed the early lead when Poling and Palmer defeated TJ Fumagalli and Kristin Kerrigan 6-2. That was followed by Air Force's Ashleigh Harvey and Meredith Jones beating the Broncos' Vanessa Timm and Frankie Trella on court two 6-4.

That set up No. 3 doubles to decide it all. Unfortunately, Nosek and Emily Strande came up short as the Falcons' Nadeen Lieberman and Elizabeth Barnickel won the match 7-6 to hand the team doubles point to Air Force.

Boise State tied the match at 1-1 when Poling collected the first singles victory on court two. She rallied from one set down to dispatched Air Force's Barnickel in three sets 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. The junior is now a team-best 21-7 on the year and 10-1 in spring duals.

After Air Force took a 3-1 lead following wins at No. 1 and 3 singles, Nosek brought Boise State to within 3-2 after she beat Kerrigan in a third-set tiebreaker. The junior rallied from one set down to take the second, then won the tiebreaker in set three to take the contest 5-7, 6-4, 7-6.

But that proved to be the last victory for the Blue and Orange as the final two singles matches on courts six and five, respectively, went the way of Air Force to make the final match score 5-2 Falcons.

Match Summary

Boise State (6-5, 0-1 MW) at Air Force (18-1, 1-0 MW)
March 17, 2019 at USAFA, Colo.

Air Force def. Boise State 5-2

Doubles
1. Poling/Palmer (BSU) def. Fumagalli/Kerrigan (AFA) 6-2
2. Harvey/Jones (AFA) def. Timm/Trella (BSU) 6-4
3. Lieberman/Barnickel (AFA) def. Nosek/Strande (BSU) 7-6

Singles
1. TJ Fumagalli (AFA) def. Wilhelmina Palmer (BSU) 7-6, 7-5
2. Lilian Poling (BSU) def. Elizabeth Barnickel (AFA) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
3. Meredith Jones (AFA) def. Vanessa Timm (BSU) 6-2, 6-7, 6-1
4. Wiktoria Nosek (BSU) def. Kristin Kerrigan (AFA) 5-7, 6-4, 7-6
5. Ashleigh Harvey (AFA) def. Emily Strande (BSU) 7-5, 6-2
6. Nadeen Lieberman (AFA) def. Frankie Trella (BSU) 6-3, 6-2

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3) Singles (2,3,1,4,6,5)