Women's Tennis Southern Conference

Elon Falls to Virginia Tech, 6-1

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Senior Anna Milian was a bright spot for the Elon women's tennis team, toughing out a 6-4, 6-7, 1-0 victory at the top singles position in the Phoenix's 6-1 loss to #55 Virginia Tech at the Burrows/Burleson Tennis Center on Wednesday evening. Elon fell to 2-2 overall on the young season, with both of its losses coming to ranked opponents. The Hokies improved to 1-0 on the year.
 
"The girls fought extremely hard today," commented Elon head women's tennis coach Elizabeth Anderson. "Anna, Paige and Elisa had extremely close matches. Anna earned a very exciting win over a strong, nationally ranked player. We are looking forward to our match tomorrow against Radford."
 
Elon's top three singles players were very competitive, with Milian and sophomore Elisa Simonetti earning victories in their opening sets. Milian nearly completed the straight-set victory, but fell 7-6 (9-7) to Tech's Martha Blakely, the 96th ranked player in the country. Milian pulled off the win in the tiebreaker, 10-7, to win the match.
 
After taking the first set against Yasmin Hamza at number three, Simonetti dropped the second set, 6-4, as Hamza forced the tiebreaker. The Hokie junior edged Simonetti, 10-7, to take the match, 4-6, 6-4, 1-0. At number two, Paige Kensrue played a competitive match against Virginia Tech's Christin Newman, falling 6-3, 6-4.
 
The Hokies opened the day with victories at all three doubles matches to earn the team point. After winning at number four and six singles, the home team clinched the match with Courtney Rauscher's 6-2, 6-1 victory over Lauren Sessoms at number five.
 
Elon will remain in Blacksburg to challenge the Radford Highlanders at 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon.