Samford 6, North Florida 1
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Samford University women's tennis team extended its season-opening winning streak to four-consecutive matches Saturday as the Bulldogs cruised to a 6-1 home victory against the 70th-ranked North Florida Ospreys at the Samford Tennis Center.
With the win, Samford (4-0) remained undefeated this season and improved its record in home matches to 2-0. The Bulldogs opened the 2011 campaign with a 7-0 triumph against Belmont. Samford then rattled off back-to-back road victories versus Charlotte and Jacksonville State.
North Florida (1-1) suffered its first loss of the season Saturday. The Ospreys opened the 2011 campaign Jan. 30 with a 7-0 win against Florida A&M.
Samford swept the doubles play and then used singles wins from Andrie Meiring, Madelie Janse Van Rensburg, Kristin Lewis, Rebecca Kirven and Lindsey Mallory to register the 6-1 victory.
The Bulldogs dominated the bottom of the singles lineup as Kirven and Mallory breezed to identical 6-0, 6-0 triumphs on courts No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.
Meiring topped North Florida's Victoria Krook in the No. 2 singles matchup 6-2, 6-3, while Janse Van Rensburg tallied a 6-1, 6-3 win on court No. 3 and Lewis outlasted the Ospreys' Simona Weymar 7-5, 1-6, 10-3 in the No. 4 singles contest.
Samford's Janse Van Rensburg and Lewis both remained undefeated in singles play this season and improved to 4-0 in the spring. So far this year, the Bulldogs have compiled a stellar 20-4 record in singles play. Additionally, Samford owns a 10-2 mark in the doubles competition.
The Samford University women's tennis team will next be in action Wednesday at 2 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their brief two-match homestand Wednesday at 2 p.m. (CST) for a cross-town showdown against the UAB Blazers to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.
Kennesaw State 6, Georgia Southern 1
Georgia Southern 6, Savannah State 1
MARIETTA, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Women's Tennis team (3-1) won one out of its two matches at the Laurel Park Tennis Complex on Saturday, February 19th as the Kennesaw State (8-1) took the 6-1 win in the morning and the Eagles rebounded to take a 7-0 win in the afternoon against Savannah State (1-1).
Senior Ali Beavers displayed her veteran skills and leadership by picking up the point for the Eagles at number-two singles. Beavers handed KSU's Iesha Holton a 6-3, 6-3 loss. Beavers and number-one doubles partner Paola Garrido defeated the KSU duo of Vera Shkundina and Iesha Holton, who were previously 5-2 on the season. The Eagles fell at the number-two and three seeds, giving the Owls the doubles point.
In the second match of the day, Georgia Southern swept the singles and doubles points across the board.
GSU's number-two doubles pair, Mimi Bollaci and Taylor Jones, shutout Savannah State's Chandel McDonie and Shannon Howard, 8-0. Alexandra Langmo and Sydney Brown won a 8-1 decision over Lauren Daniels and Denisa Vanca. The Eagle's number-one doubles pair, Allison Beeler and Caitlin Kitchen, finished the sweep with an 8-0 victory over Sandra Diskristjansdottir and Davita Washington.
Sophomore Allison Beeler started off the Eagles' singles play with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Chandel McDonie at the number-two seed. Georgia Southern's Kitchen (No. 5), Jones (No. 4) and Brown (No. 6) singles reeled off straight set 6-0 wins over the Tigers' Washington, Howard and Vanca, respectively. In the number-three seed, Langmo took the win over Daniels, 6-0, 6-1. Senior Melanie Rolle finished up the match with a 6-0, 6-4 decision over Sandra Diskristjansdottir.
The Georgia Southern Women's Tennis team will play Georgia State Sunday, February 20th, at 10 a.m. at Piedmont Park Tennis Complex in Atlanta, before traveling to South Carolina next weekend to compete in two conference matches against Wofford and Furman.
Gardner-Webb 4, Elon 3
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. -- In a tightly contested bout at Gardner-Webb on Saturday afternoon, the Elon Phoenix women's tennis team come up on the short end of a 4-3 decision against the Runnin' Bulldogs.
Gardner-Webb (4-1) claimed the doubles point with wins at numbers one and three. At number two, Elon's duo of Bryn Khoury and Frida Jansaker picked up an 8-6 victory over Ioana Oprea and Jenny Lunde.
At number one doubles, Elon's Jordan Johnston and Viviana Stavreva fell by an 8-6 margin to the pair of Laura Kriett and Erica White while, at number three, GWU's Rita Gouveia and Ronia Hutterli upended the Phoenix's Briana Berne and Andrea Pont Grau 8-4.
The two sides split the six singles matches, with Elon (3-4) winning at numbers one, three and five.
Johnson claimed a 6-3, 6-0 victory over White at the top singles position. At number three, Khoury bested Kriett 6-1, 6-4. Berne was also a straight-set winner at number five, topping Hutterli 6-1, 6-2.
In the only three-set match of the contest, Elon's Jansaker fell short of Oprea 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 at number two. GWU's Lunde topped Stavreva 6-2, 6-2 at number four while Gouveia was a 6-2, 6-3 victor over Pont Grau at number six.
Elon will return to its home court, the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center, on Wednesday for a 2 p.m. match with North Carolina A&T.
Coastal Carolina 6, Chattanooga 1
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis team dropped a 6-1 non-conference match to Coastal Carolina this afternoon. Freshman Alexa Flynn scored the lone point for UTC with at No. 3 singles as the Lady Mocs drop to 1-3 on the year.
The Chanticleers got off to a solid start by sweeping the doubles point. Flynn tied it up with her 6-2, 6-2, win over Kourtney Kowal for her team-leading ninth singles win of the year. Unfortunately for the Lady Mocs, that was the last win of the afternoon.
Flynn improved to 9-3 on the season and is 2-2 in dual action at No. 3. Coastal Carolina upped its record to 3-1 overall.
The Lady Mocs will be back in action tomorrow when they host Jacksonville State. Match time is set for 2:30 p.m. (E.S.T.) at the UTC Tennis Courts. Live scoring will again be available on GoMocs.com. The women take on the Gamecocks following the men's teams competing at 11:00 a.m.