Chattanooga 7, Mercer 0
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis team posted a 7-0 shutout at Mercer today. The Lady Mocs evened their record at 4-4 with the non-conference road win while the Bears dropped to 2-3.
Mercer could only suit up five players, forcing them to forfeit both the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles matches. Chattanooga took the doubles point behind junior Shaina Singh and sophomore Jenna Nurik's team-leading 10th win of the year. They defeated Amanda Bertoni and Lucie Payrat, 8-3, to improve to 10-5.
Junior Emily Hangstefer and freshman Alexa Flynn also won their doubles match at No. 1, downing Jennifer Lada and Aurelie de Montjou, 8-2.
UTC went up 2-0 when senior Annie Green took the forfeit at No. 6. Junior Charlotte Bossy followed that with a 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Sarah Hanna at No. 5.
Hangstefer secured the win with her 6-2, 6-0 win over Payrat at No. 3. She snapped a six-match losing streak in singles play for her first win of the spring. Nurik, Flynn and Singh all closed out the day with wins in their singles matches.
"We came down here and took care of business," stated head coach Jeff Clark. "It is great to get a 7-0 win and get some momentum going into the weekend. Hopefully, we can continue this strong play against Western Carolina on Saturday."
The Lady Mocs return to Southern Conference action on Saturday when they host the Catamounts at 1:00 p.m.
Wofford 4, Gardner-Webb 3
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Wofford women's tennis program faced off against the Runnin' Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb Thursday afternoon. Emilia "Frenchie" Milovanovic and Samantha Sullivan came from behind in an intense doubles match to clench the doubles point for the Terriers and help push Coach Hangstefer's team to their eighth victory of the season. Haley Baird won her singles match, securing the fourth point and win for the Terriers. The 4-3 win gives Wofford an 8-4 record on the season, while Gardner-Webb drops to 5-3.
The Terriers started the afternoon splitting the first two doubles matches. Sarah Evans and Julia Paulson were first off the courts after suffering an 8-3 loss to GWU's Jenny Lunde and Ioana Oprea at the No. 2 spot. Haley Baird and Guinn Garcia held strong for their seventh doubles win of the season after defeating Laura Kriett and Erica White 8-6 at the top slot.
The doubles point fell into the hands of Milovanovic and Sullivan. The match seemed to be lost after the duo fell to a 5-0 deficit. After winning the next two games and losing another, the score was 6-3 and the partners started winning back the momentum. The duo pushed the score to 5-7, being forced to have to win the rest of the games to be able to win the doubles point. The pair stepped up to the challenge and tied the match, 7-7. Milovanovic and Sullivan showcased outstanding play to win the next two games and clenched the doubles point after a 9-7 finish.
With a 1-0 lead, the Terriers grabbed two more quick points in singles play after two of the Bulldog athletes were forced to retire due to injury. At the No. 1 spot, Milovanovic's opposition, Erica White, retired in the second set. Milovanovic had won the first set and was up 1-0 in the second before White retired. GWU's Hutterli was forced to retire as well at the No. 5 spot against Wofford's Julia Paulson. Paulson had taken a 5-4 lead in the first set when the Bulldog retired from the match.
Haley Baird continued her hot streak and fortified the victory for the Terriers, winning her match at the No. 3 spot in straight sets. Baird faced off against Kriett and only gave up four total games, winning 6-2, 6-2. Baird has won her past four singles matches played.
The Bulldogs won the remainder of the singles matches. GWU's Oprea defeated Garcia in a tight finish, 6-4, 7-6 (6) and Evans lost 6-1, 7-5 to GWU's Lunde at the No. 4 position. Cox lost to GWU's Gouveia 6-1, 6-3.
After the 4-3 victory, Milovanovic now leads the team in singles wins with nine and is closely followed by Baird, Evans and Paulson with eight wins each. Baird and Garcia currently have the most doubles wins as a pair with seven.
Coach Hangstefer commented after the match, "The doubles point was clutch for us today. Frenchie and Sam came from behind to win that match and that was huge. Gardner Webb is a very good team and put up a great fight. I'm proud of our players for staying tough and pulling through today."
The Terriers will return to action Saturday, March 5th against Charleston Southern. The match will be played at home and is set to start at 10:00.
North Carolina 7, UNCG 0
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - UNCG had its four-match winning streak snapped on Thursday as the Spartans fell to No. 5 North Carolina, 7-0, at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center.
In doubles, Devon Sutherland and Mikayla Rogers fell at No. 3 before Alex Whitehead and Stephanie Macfarlane fell to Lauren McHale and Shinann Featherston. The duo of McHale and Featherston are currently ranked fifth in the nation by the ITA.
Despite the Tar Heels having clinch the doubles point, UNCG continued to fight as Niltooli Wilkins and Lucy Dougherty defeated Zoe De Bruycker and Jennifer Stone at No. 2 doubles, 8-6.
The first match to finish in singles was at No. 2 where Alex Whitehead fell to Jelena Durisic. Tessa Lyons followed with a win at No. 4 singles for UNC to take a 3-0 lead over the Spartans.
The Tar Heels clinched the match with No. 105 Lauren McHale's win over Dilara Yurtkuran at No. 3 singles. UNCG's Mikayla Rogers fell to Laura Slater at No. 6 singles to push the Tar Heel lead to 5-0.
Niltooli Wilkins dropped her first match of the season at No. 1 singles to Zoe De Bruycker, who is ranked 14th in the nation, 6-4, 6-4. In the closest match of the day, Annette Rios fell 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 at No. 5 singles to Jennifer Stone.
The Spartans will continue their three-game road swing on Monday as they travel to UNC Asheville for an 11 a.m. match.