Elon 4, UNC Wilmington 3
ELON, N.C. - The Elon women's tennis team won its sixth match of the season with a 4-3 victory over the visiting UNC Wilmington Seahawks on Thursday afternoon at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The Phoenix (6-3) earned the doubles point and won three singles matches en route to the victory. The match snapped a streak of 16 consecutive non-conference wins by the Seahawks (2-1) dating back to the 2009 season.
"We got off to a quick start today in doubles and that really set the tone for the match," said Elon head coach Elizabeth Anderson. "Anna, Elisa and Laura all played really solid in singles and all the other matches were very competitive. We look forward to having everyone come out and support us when we play USC Upstate on Sunday afternoon."
Freshman Briana Berne and senior Laura Graybill improved to 5-3 on the season with an 8-2 win over Hartley Collins and Chelsea Kahle at number three doubles. Elon clinched the team point when Anna Milian and Elisa Simonetti won their fourth consecutive match, defeating Kayla Schwenk and Christina Riley, 8-4, at the top spot. UNC Wilmington's Christina Lee and Lindsay Leblang earned the lone doubles win for the Seahawks with an 8-2 victory against Paige Kensrue and Daleen Kloppers.
Milian made quick work of Schwenk in singles action to put Elon on top 2-0. The reigning Southern Conference Player of the Week earned a 6-1, 6-3 win for her sixth dual victory of the season. UNCW got on the board with Lee's 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Kensrue at number two.
Simonetti extended Elon's advantage to 3-1, topping Riley, 6-2, 6-4 at the third spot. Graybill clinched the match for the Phoenix, defeating Collins by a score of 6-1, 6-4 at number six.
With the match decided, the decision was made to shorten the number five singles match to an eight-game pro set. Wilmington's Casey Dashiell pulled out an 8-6 victory over Lauren Sessoms. Berne and Leblang split sets at number four singles before Leblang earned the victory in the tiebreaker, 6-2, 4-6, 10-5.
Elon will be back in action on Sunday, February 21 against USC Upstate at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The match is a double-header with the men's team with both matches scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Western Carolina 6, Brevard 1
CULLOWHEE, N.C. - The Western Carolina women's tennis team finally evaded a postponement and picked up a 6-1 season-opening victory over Brevard College on Thursday afternoon at the Catamount Athletic Complex.
The opening win for the Catamounts (1-0) was the first since defeating Presbyterian College, 4-3, on February 20, 2004. Brevard College dropped to 0-2 on the season after the loss.
The Catamounts earned the doubles point after Amanda Massey and Ainoha Iglesias Díaz combined for an 8-6 win over the Tornados' pair of Lindsay Shaeffer and Kim Dixon. Freshmen duo Karen Jiménez Sarmiento and Carolina Lainez earned an 8-5 victory over Brevard's Lindsay Hostetter and Claire Dillman.
Emily Turke and Izabella Glinska helped the Catamounts sweep the doubles portion of the match with an 8-4 defeat of Brevard's Sara Douglas and Jennifer Nyman.
WCU picked up five out of a possible six victories in the singles section of Thursday's match. The freshman Lainez used two sets, 6-1, 6-1 to defeat Hostetter in the number two slot. Jiménez Sarmiento also picked up a straight-set victory in the five spot, 6-1, 6-1 over Kim Dixon.
Glinska, a senior from Toronto, Ontario, prevailed in a three-set match, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 by defeating Brevard's Dillman.
There were also a pair of three-set matches played in the four and six spots of the lineup. Iglesias Díaz dropped the middle set 6-7, but picked up a 6-1 and 6-0 to claim the victory. Veteran Emily Turke picked up a pair of wins 6-2, 6-3 while dropping the middle set, and 6-0.
Brevard College's lone point came off a tie-break victory from Shaeffer, who defeated Massey 7-5 in the tie-breaker. Shaeffer then went on to win set two 6-4, before claiming the final set in a super tie-break, 10-8.
"It was finally good to get out there and play," noted Catamounts coach Jan Stubbs. "I felt that we did some good things and hopefully this will help boost our momentum for the weekend."
Western Carolina will host Mercer on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 pm at the Catamount Athletic Complex.
Charlotte 5, Wofford 2
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Wofford women's tennis team lost it home opener on Thursday afternoon to UNC Charlotte by a score of 5-2. The lost puts the Terriers at 0-4 on the season while UNC Charlotte improves to 1-4.
Wofford fell behind early in the match losing the doubles point to give UNC Charlotte a 1-0 advantage heading into singles play.
Freshman Stephanie Cox started the singles action off with a win at number six singles. Cox defeated Iveta Guneva by a score of 6-3, 6-2. The victory tied the score at 1-1. UNC Charlotte responded by winning the next three matches to secure the victory.
To finish the day Wofford got a victory from Guinn Garcia who defeated Kimber Redfern 6-3, 7-5 at number three singles. In the final match of the day Lindsay Larkin fell in a hard fought three set match to Gabi Vergara. Vergara won the first set 7-5 but Larkin came back to win the second set 7-6 with a 7-3 tie break win. The final set was decided over a ten point tie break which Vergara won 10-7.
The Terriers will be back in action on February 21 when they will take on the Troy University Trojans and 12:00 at the Reeves Tennis Center on the Wofford College campus.
Gardner-Webb 6, Appalachian State 1
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C.- Appalachian State University women's tennis was unable to hang with a solid Gardner-Webb squad Thursday afternoon, as the Mountaineers' suffered a 6-1 loss at the hands of the Runnin' Bulldogs. With the defeat, ASU falls to an even 2-2 on the season, while GWU improves to 2-1 overall.
Despite a strong effort, the Black and Gold could not earn the ever-important doubles point, dropping all three decisions in doubles play.
At the number one doubles spot, the duo of Ellie Linsell and Olivia Stannard fell 8-6 to Kasey Ellis and Erica White, while Blakeley Bean and Gisela Fernandez lost as well, falling 8-1.
The team of Jennifer Ansari and Laura Janke played a tough match against Tavenner Black and Ronia Hutterli but came up just short, losing 8-6.
Linsell faced White once again in singles action, and suffered a 6-2, 6-4 defeat at the number one singles position. Ansari and senior Caroline Mauch faced the same fate, as both dropped two-set decisions to their competitors at the two and three singles spots.
Fernandez was the lone Mountaineer that picked up a win, as she beat Ellis at the number four spot, winning 7-5, 6-4.
Seeing her first match-action of the season, senior Amanda Cash downed Hutterli in the first set winning 6-0, but then lost in a close second set 7-5 and could not hang on for the victory losing 6-2 in the third and final set.
In the last singles match of the contest, Janke lost in two sets to Black at the number six spot.
With a quick turnaround, the Apps trek back to the High Country to host East Carolina, Friday February 19. The contest is set to begin at 2 p.m. at the Deer Valley Tennis complex.
Mississippi State 5, Samford 2
STARKVILLE, Miss. --- The Samford University women's tennis team faced its toughest competition of the 2010 spring season Thursday and dropped a 5-2 decision on the road against the 68th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs. In the loss, Samford's Taylor Morgan and Rebecca Kirven both registered straight-set victories in singles play.
Morgan, the Bulldogs' talented junior from Jacksonville, Fla., knocked off Olesya Tsigvintseva 6-4, 6-4, in the No. 1 singles competition, while Kirven cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Danielle Terpko on court No. 6. With the win, Kirven remained undefeated on the season and improved her team-best record to 6-0.
Samford (4-2) was swept in Thursday's doubles competition and then suffered singles defeats on courts No. 2 through No. 5. The loss was only the Bulldogs' second of the season. On Saturday, Samford dropped a hard-fought match at Memphis 4-2.
With the win, Mississippi State (3-1) improved to 2-0 at home this year. The Bulldogs' lone loss of the season came against the seventh-ranked Miami Hurricanes in Coral Gables, Fla.
The Samford women's tennis team will next be in action Saturday at 11 a.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs play host to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. The non-conference contest will be held at the Samford Tennis Center.