Elon 4, Appalachian State 3
ELON, N.C. - Behind the strength of four singles victories, the Elon women's tennis team earned its second Southern Conference victory of the season with a 4-3 defeat of the Appalachian State Mountaineers at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center on Wednesday afternoon. After dropping the doubles point, Elon (6-7, 2-2) won four straight singles matches en route to its second consecutive win. ASU dropped to 6-5 overall, 0-2 in league play.
Freshman Frida Jansaker earned the first Phoenix point to knot the match at one. Jansaker cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 result against Blakely Bean at number three. The rookie is now 2-2 against league foes. On court five, sophomore Briana Berne gave Elon a lead it would never relinquish, posting a 6-2, 6-4 win against Gisela Fernandez. The Phoenix went ahead 3-1 on another straight-set win when Viviana Stavreva knocked off Jessica Thaggard, 6-4, 6-2 at number four. The result on court one ultimately decided the match as Jordan Johnston picked up a 6-2, 7-6 (1) clinching win over Ellie Linsell.
With the match already determined, the Mountaineers picked up singles wins on courts two and six.
In some tight doubles matches to begin the day, the Phoenix's lone victory came at the number two position. Bryn Khoury and Jansaker defeated Bean and Fernandez, 8-6. It was the tandem's third consecutive win as the duo moved to 8-4 on the year.
Elon will begin a five-match road swing on Monday, March 21 when it travels to Georgia Southern to take on the Eagles at 2 p.m.
Wofford 7, Western Carolina 0
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Western Carolina women's tennis team fell 7-0 Wednesday to Wofford in Spartanburg, S.C., to drop to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in Southern Conference play. The Terriers improved to 9-5 and 2-0 in SoCon play.
The Catamounts lost the doubles point, dropping the No. 2 match and the defaulted match at No. 3. The Catamounts fought to a tiebreak set after the score remained even in the first set. In the tiebreak set, the Western Carolina duo of Ainhoa Iglesias and Carolina Lainez came away victorious, holding the Wofford pair of Baird and Garcia to just two points.
In singles, the Terriers controlled play from the outset, quickly winning three matches to earn the victory.
At No. 2 singles, the first set between Carolina Lainez and Haley Baird went into a tiebreaker situation, with Baird narrowly getting by Lainez. Lainez scored five points in the tiebreak. In the deciding second set, Baird defeated Lainez 6-1.
UNC Wilmington 6, UNCG 1
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG narrowly dropped the doubles point and was never able to recover as the Spartans fell to UNCW, 6-1, on Wednesday afternoon at the UNCG Tennis Courts.
The Spartans (5-3) got off to a good start at No. 1 doubles as Stephanie Macfarlane and Alex Whitehead defeated the duo of Angie Sekely and Olga Blank, 8-3. Needing to win only one more match to clinch the doubles point, UNCG dropped a pair of tight matches.
The Seahawks (14-3) were able to rebound with an 8-6 win at No. 2 doubles to tie things up before pulling out another close 8-6 match at No. 3 doubles to clinch the doubles point.
Things didn't get better for the Spartans in singles play as UNCW was able to score straight-set wins at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles to clinch the match.
One bright spot for the Spartans was at No. 1 singles as Niltooli Wilkins continued her impressive play this spring. She lost the first set to blank, 1-6, but rebounded to take the second set, 6-0. Wilkins was up 1-0 in the third and final set before Blank retired due to injury. The win moved Wilkins' record this spring to 7-1 in singles.
The Seahawks scored another straight-set win at No. 6 singles to go ahead 5-1, before winning a tight three-set match at No. 2 singles to end the match.
The Spartans return to Southern Conference action this weekend as they host Appalachian State on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the UNCG Tennis Courts.