College of Charleston 5, Samford 2
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The College of Charleston women's tennis team claimed its fifth-straight victory by holding off Samford, 5-2, in the final two singles matches standing on Saturday afternoon at the College of Charleston Tennis Center at Patriots Point.
The Cougars (12-7, 4-0) are currently on their longest winning streak of the season and improved to an undefeated 4-0 in Southern Conference play. Senior Emma Hayman (Wanganui, New Zealand) clinched the match rebounding back from a 6-0 first-set deficit winning two second-and third-set tiebreaks against Samford's Andrie Meiring at the No. 2 line.
Junior Caroline Newman later closed out the four-hour and 30-minute match with a 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 victory over M. Janse van Rensburg at No. 3 singles. She is one of three players on the squad to win five-straight matches along with Hayman and freshman Kelly Kambourelis who returned the lineup with a 6-2, 6-4 decision over Lindsey Mallory at No. 6.
In doubles play, the Cougars won two of three matches behind an 8-6 count with the combinations of senior Kinsey Casey and junior Katie Lee at No. 2 and sisters Caroline Newman and sophomore Christin Newman at No. 3.
UNCG 4, Furman 3
GREENVILLE, S.C. - In a battle of two undefeated teams in the Southern Conference, UNCG was able to win the doubles point en route to edging Furman, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon at the Mickel Tennis Center.
UNCG (10-4, 5-0 SoCon) now sit atop of the conference standings as Furman (8-9, 5-1 SoCon) fell into third place.
The Spartans were once again able to win the all-important doubles point for the 11th time in 14 matches this season. Furman was able to win the first double match, 8-2, at No. 3 before Niltooli Wilkins and Lucy Dougherty captured an 8-1 win at No. 2 to push their season record to 12-2.
It all came down to No. 1 doubles where Stephanie Macfarlane and Alex Whitehead came away with an 8-5 victory to improve to 11-3 on the year.
The Spartans were able to push their lead to 2-0 when Dougherty captured a 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 5 singles. The Paladins cut UNCG's lead down to 2-1 when they took a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 4.
UNCG came right back at No. 2 when Whitehead defeated Laura Kline, 6-2, 6-4. Furman again made the Spartan lead just one when No. 71 Mocia Arguello defeated Wilkins at No. 1, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0. That was just the second loss Wilkins has suffered this season.
Furman was able to tie the score at three when the Paladins won a hard fought 7-5, 6-4 at No. 3 singles. With the team tied, it all came down to No. 6 singles where Annette Rios scored a narrow 7-6, 7-5 win to clinch the win for UNCG.
Elon 5, Wofford 2
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Despite the strong winds at the Reeves Tennis Center on Saturday afternoon, the Elon women's tennis grabbed a 5-2 Southern Conference victory over the host Wofford Terriers. The Phoenix (9-8, 4-3) used momentum by taking the doubles point to begin the match en route to its 10th win of the season. Wofford dropped to 10-10 on the year, 2-4 in SoCon action.
Elon got off to a good start with wins at number one and three doubles. Jordan Johnston and Briana Berne knocked off Haley Baird and Emilia Milovanovic, 8-3, on court one. At number three, senior Jessica Margolis and Viviana Stavreva improved to 4-0 on the season, defeating Lucy Schermerhorn and Samantha Sullivan 8-6 in their first league match of the year. Frida Jansaker and Bryn Khoury lost a heartbreaker to Sarah Evans and Julia Paulson, 8-6.
In singles action, Khoury dropped only two games to Baird in a 6-0, 6-2 victory that gave Elon a 2-0 advantage. Wofford got on the board when Meagan Laframboise defeated Margolis, 6-1, 6-4, at number six. Berne got down 4-1 in her first set before battling out a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Schermerhorn at number five as Elon took a 3-1 lead. Clinching the match for Elon, Johnston won her 11th match of the season to improve to 11-4 in her rookie year. Johnston and Milovanovic split sets before the Elon freshman took a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win at the top position.
The Phoenix's final point came from Stavreva who knocked off Paulson in a three-set decision, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, on court four. With the match already determined, Evans and Jansaker played a super tiebreaker to determine the winner at number three. Evans pulled off the 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (6) victory as the matched finished with a 5-2 tally.
Chattanooga 4, Georgia Southern 3
STATESBORO, Ga. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis team picked up an impressive Southern Conference road win at Georgia Southern today. The Lady Mocs dropped the doubles point, but won four of the first five singles matches to clinch a 4-3 win. UTC improves to 9-7 overall and 4-2 in SoCon action.
Sophomore Jenna Nurik and Shaina Singh won for the eighth time in the last nine matches at No. 2 doubles. They defeated Mimi Bollaci and Natalie Maffett 8-1 to improve to 16-6 overall.
Despite the win from Nurik and Singh, the Lady Mocs fell behind 1-0 after losing the doubles points. It is just the second time this season UTC has lost the doubles point and come back to win the match.
Chattanooga grabbed the first set in all six singles matches to set the tone early. Freshman Alexa Flynn continued her impressive season with a (6-2, 6-3) win over Melanie Rolle at No. 2. She improves to a team-best 16-8 overall with her second-straight win.
Singh was next off the court with a (6-3, 6-4) win over Ashley Hungerford at No. 4. It was Singh's fifth-straight win, improving to 15-11 overall and 10-4 in the fourth slot. Junior Charlotte Bossy followed that with a gritty win at No. 5. She was trailing 5-3 in the second set to Alessandra Dzuba before winning four-straight games to clinch the match (6-2, 7-5).
The Eagles pulled to within 3-2 when Ali Beavers defeated Nurik (3-6, 6-3, 6-0) at No. 1. Junior Emily Hangstefer then stepped up and clinched the win with her (7-5, 6-3) victory over Maffett at No. 2.
Appalachian State 5, North Carolina Central 0
BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University women's tennis snagged its eighth win of the season by thumping North Carolina Central 5-0 on Saturday afternoon at Yohnalossee Racquet Club. ASU's win improves its record to 8-8 while the Eagles drop to 8-10.
The Mountaineers got off to a good start by winning all its matches and claiming the doubles point.
The No. 1 duo of Ellie Linsell and Blakeley Bean made quick work of Fredrica Lombard and Maria Nedstrom by winning 8-2. Jennifer Ansari and Gisela Fernandez followed suit as they defeated Kelly Chaparro and Olesva Palko 8-5 at the number two pairing.
Appalachian continued its dominance in singles play by not losing a set to the Eagles.
Ansari played No. 1 for ASU and defeated Palko 6-2, 6-1 while Thaggard laid a beating down on Lombard 6-1, 6-1 at the number two spot.
Bean and Kim-Lea Dinh also won in straight sets at the three and four position, winning 6-0, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-0.
Coach Crothers and his squad return to action tomorrow afternoon as they travel to face Southern Conference rival Western Carolina in Cullowhee, N.C.