College of Charleston 6, Wisconsin 1
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston women's tennis team claimed their second win over a nationally-ranked opponent this season with a 6-1 victory over No. 72 Wisconsin on Friday afternoon at the College of Charleston Tennis Center at Patriots Point.
The Cougars (6-5) previously beat No. 70 North Florida, 4-2, on Feb. 25. They swept the doubles point for the third-consecutive match as senior Emma Hayman and sophomore Irene Viana defeated Wisconsin's top duo of Jenny Hois and Alaina Trgovich, 8-5, at the No. 1 line to go into singles play with the 1-0 momentum over the Badgers (8-4).
Five of the six singles matches were decided in straight sets including a 6-3, 6-2 win by junior Caroline Newman over Hannah Berner for the match clincher at No. 3. Newman is one of three Cougars currently on a three-match winning streak next to senior Keely Mulligan, who got past Aleksandra Markovic, 7-6, 6-0, at No. 5, and junior Katie Lee, who won two love-sets over Caroline Bauer, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 6.
"We took advantage of the beautiful Lowcountry weather today and benefited from the 83 degree temperature," CofC Director of Tennis Angelo Anastopoulo said. "I was hoping to start our six-match stretch with a good performance and defeating a strong Big Ten opponent, who were ranked No. 54 last week, is just what we needed. We would like to thank the CofC women's soccer team for their support to help us pull ahead in the singles."
CofC will take on its second-straight opponent in a tough six-match stretch in East Carolina (12-3) on Saturday, March 19.
"East Carolina comes into town as part of USTA Campus Kids Day," Anastopoulo said. "They know our team very well and will be another tough match. They are extremely talented in doubles."
Georgia Southern 5, Southern Illinois 2
HILTON HEAD, S.C. - The Georgia Southern Women's Tennis (7-5) team topped Southern Illinois Carbondale (6-8) by a 5-2 score at the Evian Tennis Center at Hilton Head Island, S.C., in a Spring Break Tennis Fest match Friday, March 18th. The Eagles took a 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point and then battled in singles play to earn four more points. Senior Ali Beavers (Kingsport, Tenn.) clinched the match with her fifth-straight win, a 2-6, 7-6 (6), 10-6 victory over the Salukis' Anita Lee.
"Our team competed very well in this long, closely contest match, and I am proud of our determination in getting the win," said Eagle Head Women's Tennis Coach Amy Bonner. "This benefits our whole experience as we prepare to continue conference play. We battled it out all the way to the end and came out on top."
The No. 1 doubles team of Beavers and Paola Garrido won 8-3 over SIUC's Melanie Delsart and Jennifer Dien. The Salukis' Anatascia Simons and Korey Love came back with an 8-5 win at number-two doubles. Georgia Southern's number-three doubles tandem of Ashley Hungerford and Caitlin Kitchen won by default.
The Eagles picked up their second point when Allison Beeler won by default at the No. 6 slot. SIUC, however, didn't yield, and evened the score at 2-2 by winning in straight sets at No. 3 and No. 4 singles. Hungerford put Georgia Southern back in the lead with a 6-0, 7-6 (8) triumph over Simons at number-five singles.
After falling behind in the first set 2-6, Beavers won her second set 7-6 (6) and then recorded a 10-4 score in the final tiebreaker set for Georgia Southern's fourth point and team win. Garrido closed out the match with a 6-4, 6-7 (6), 10-4 win over Delsart at No. 1 singles. Both Beavers and Garrido played the 10-point tiebreaker to allow SIUC to prepare for the second match of its doubleheader.
Georgia Southern returns to Statesboro tomorrow, Saturday, March 19th, to play Florida A&M at 2:30 p.m. at the Hanner Tennis Complex. The match against the Rattlers is the final non-conference match of 2011. Elon visits at 2 p.m. Monday, March 21st, for a Southern Conference match.
The Lady Rattlers and Eagles have not met for the last three seasons and GSU leads the series 6-4. The two teams last met in 2007 when Georgia Southern took a 6-1 victory in Statesboro for the fourth-straight win in the series.
Saturday's match against FAMU is a USTA Campus Kids' Day event and has also been designated Junior Eagle Day. Georgia Southern mascot GUS will be in attendance for both the Men's and Women's Tennis contests at Hanner Tennis Complex and Subway is providing sandwiches to the first 50 fans at each match.
Richmond 6, Davidson 1
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Seeking its second win in the all-time series, the Davidson women's tennis team fell short in dropping a 6-1 decision to visiting Richmond on Friday afternoon in women's tennis action on the Covington Tennis Courts.
The Wildcats (4-11) fell to 1-6 all-time vs. the Spiders, who ran their record to 7-4 and avenged a 5-2 defeat to Davidson a year ago.
The match started out with the doubles play and Davidson battled in all three matches, only to get a win in one of them resulting in Richmond capturing the doubles team point. The duo of Romina Clemente and Katharine Dicconson earned their first win together at the No. 3 spot with an 8-7 victory. It was the Wildcats' sixth different pair of doubles teams to play at the No. 3 position.
The freshman pair of Brites Moniz-Soares and Nisha Crouser tried to give Davidson another win in doubles action, but fell 8-5, and Richmond went on to secure the point with an 8-2 win at the No. 2 spot.
Clemente was the lone 'Cat to pick up a singles win on the afternoon as the Spiders scored wins at five of the six singles positions for the 6-1 win.
The junior forced a super tie-breaker in the third set after splitting her first two with Kelly Tidwell. Clemente fell in the first set, 7-6, but came back to score a 7-5 win in set two. Since the match had been decided, Clemente and Tidwell played the super tie-breaker and Clemente prevailed with a 10-8 win.
She improved to 3-6 on the season in singles action and has three doubles wins overall as well.
Starting a four-match homestand today, Davidson plays match number two in the homestand next Friday, Mar. 25 when it hosts Appalachian State at 3 p.m.