Georgia Southern 6, Bethune-Cookman 1
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ? The Georgia Southern women’s tennis team rebounded from a road defeat yesterday with a 6-1 win over Bethune-Cookman Saturday morning (Feb. 14). The doubles point and five singles victories pushed the Lady Eagles to a 4-3 overall record this season, while the Wildcats dropped to 0-2.
The teams opened the contest playing a tight doubles point with the clinching match coming down to the last court. Georgia Southern notched the doubles point as the three matches finished in numerical order. Ali Beavers and Kristi Kegerreis teamed up at the one seed to take on the Wildcat duo of Monica Musilova and Eva Hankova. The Eagle tandem crushed the Wildcats with a decisive 8-1 mark. But Bethune-Cookman bounced right back taking the second doubles match at the two seed. Katarina Szaboova and Stacey Lopez paired up to defeat Melanie Rolle and Christine Caforio, 8-6, leaving the decision of the doubles point to the three seed where Shea Huxtable and Jessica Fuller found themselves on serve against Valecia Kendrick and Andrea Paez. The Eagle pair broke the Wildcat duo to take their match, 8-6, and give the Lady Eagles a 1-0 advantage heading into singles action.
Georgia Southern carried the intensity of doubles competition over to singles play, clinching the match with the first three contests off the court. Rolle finished her match first with a straight set 6-2, 6-1 decision over Hankova at the three seed, followed by Emma Knight downing Ward, 6-1, 6-3, at the six seed, giving the Lady Eagles a 3-0 lead. Fuller handled Lopez at the four position 6-3, 6-4, to clinch the match, 4-0, for Georgia Southern.
With the match decision already set, the Lady Eagles added two more singles victories to the board. Caforio upended Kendrick from the five seed, 7-5, 6-4, moments before Bethune-Cookman earned its lone point of the morning. Szaboova grabbed a victory over Kegerreis at the one seed in a match tiebreaker. Kegerreis dropped the first set in a tiebreak, 7-6(7), but bounced right back to sweep Szaboova 6-0 in the second set to draw the match into a tiebreak. Kegerreis pushed Szaboova, but fell 10-7.
Maddox closed out the morning for Georgia Southern at the two position conquering Musilova. Maddox came back from being down 5-2 to take the first set 7-5, but dropped the second set, 7-5. Maddox prevailed in the match tiebreaker, 10-5, finalizing the match score at 6-1.
Georgia Southern is back in action when they travel to Elon to open Southern Conference play. First serve at Elon is slated for 11 a.m. on Saturday, February 21.
No. 26 Florida State 6, Furman 1
TAMPA, Fla. ? The Furman women's tennis team dropped a 6-1 decision to #26 Florida State on Saturday afternoon at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts on the campus of South Florida. The Paladins fall to 1-5 on the season while the Seminoles improve to 4-2.
With wins in all three doubles matches, Florida State took the early lead in the match. Seminole sophomores Katie Rybakova and Bonny Davidson earned an 8-1 win over junior Jessica Preeg and freshman Susan Bitetti at number three. FSU clinched the point with an 8-5 victory at number two and finished doubles competition with an 8-6 mark at the top spot.
The Seminoles posted straight-set victories at number four, three and six to clinch the dual. Furman senior Laura Gioia won her third consecutive match with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Noemi Scharle at the number one singles position. Number two singles featured a tight match between two ranked players. FSU's #35 Katie Rybakova pulled off a 6-1, 6-7, 11-9 win over #37 Monica Arguello.
The Paladins return home to challenge Presbyterian College on Saturday, February 21 at 2 p.m. at Mickel Tennis Center.
No. 41 Virginia Tech 7, Davidson 0
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The No. 41 Virginia Tech women?s tennis team completed a two-match sweep on the day with a 7-0 victory over Davidson at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center on the campus of Virginia Tech.
The Wildcats saw their three-match win streak come to an end, falling to 3-2 on the season, while the Hokies improved to 6-1 on the year.
Tech (6-1), ranked No. 41 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll, swept three matches to win the doubles point then won all of the six singles contests for the victory.
Samantha Galainena and Ali Gores had the closest match, scoring four game wins in their doubles match, but fell by the count of 8-4.
Galainena and freshman Molly McDevitt each had a solid showing in their singles matches, forcing a third-set tie-breaker after picking up wins of
6-2 and 7-5 in their second set singles matches.
Also playing tough in their singles matches were Michele Fanney and Virginia Berry, who each gave their opponents a run until falling in straight sets.
Fanney pushed Jessica Brouwer to an extra game in the first set at the No. 1 singles spot, before falling 7-5 and then 6-2 in the second set.
Berry, riding a two-match winning streak, fell 6-0 in her first set at the No. 2 singles position, but regrouped to force a tie breaker in the second set, before falling 7-6.
The Wildcats next return to the courts on Thursday, Feb. 19 for a 2:30 match at North Carolina.
East Carolina 7, Appalachian State 0
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Appalachian State University women's tennis faced a tough opponent in East Carolina Saturday morning, and was unable to pull out a win, as the Mountaineers fell to the Pirates 7-0. With the loss ASU drops to 1-4 on the season, while ECU improves to 3-1.
The Apps got off to a rough start as East Carolina defeated Appalachian in all doubles sets and earned the doubles point.
At the number one double spot, the duo of Amanda Cash and Olivia Stannard were over powered by Jessica Cook and Varinia Soler and fell 8-2. Blakeley Bean and Lindsay King experienced the same fate at the number two doubles position, while Laura Janke and Caroline Mauch were able to notch one more set win, but fell 8-3.
Singles play did not prove to be much easier for Appalachian as the Pirates won straight sets in the first five flights. Cash dropped to Cook, falling 6-0 and 6-1 at the number one spot, while Monica Tomas last 6-0, 6-4 to Soler at the number two place.
Bean and Heather Prior struggled against their competition as well, with Bean losing 6-0, 6-0 and Prior dropping 6-0, 6-2.
Stannard and Mauch posted the best performances of the day, with Stannard battling Cabanillas, but was defeated 7-5 and 6-3 and Mauch streching her match out to three sets, before falling 6-2, 3-6, 1-0.
The Mountaineers return home to take on Liberty, February 21 at 1 p.m.