Chattanooga 5, Murray State 2
MURRAY, Ky. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis team remained undefeated with a 5-2 win at Murray State today. The Lady Mocs move to 4-0 to start the season while the Racers fall to 1-2 overall.
Chattanooga is yet to lose a doubles point this season, grabbing two of three matches today. Junior Jenna Nurik and freshman Kaylene Chadwell opened with an 8-2 win at No. 2, improving to 11-1 overall and 4-0 in dual action. MSU took the No. 1 match, but seniors Charlotte Bossy and Shaina Singh won 8-6 at No. 3.
UTC jumped out to a 3-0 lead with straight set wins in the first two singles matches. Sophomore Alexa Flynn opened with a (6-0, 6-2) win at No. 3. She improved to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in spring play. Nurik defeated Cassidy Cunitz (6-1, 7-5) at No. 1 to up her record to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in the spring.
MSU took the No. 4 match, but Chadwell clinched the match with a three-set win at No. 2. Singh and Bossy split the last two matches with Singh winning at No. 5 and Bossy falling at No. 6. Singh remains perfect in the spring at 4-0 and is 10-5 overall. Bossy dropped her first match of the spring.
The Lady Mocs are off for the next 11 days. The next match is at Middle Tennessee on Thursday, Feb. 23. The next home match is Saturday, Feb. 25, against Kennesaw State. Match time against the Owls is set for 1:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) on the UTC Tennis Courts.
College of Charleston 6, North Florida 1
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - In its home opener, the No. 70-ranked College of Charleston women's tennis team defeated North Florida, 6-1, on Sunday afternoon at the CofC Tennis Center at Patriots Point.
The Cougars (2-2) gained the momentum early in the match winning a hard-fought doubles point which took more than two hours to close out. It would come down to the final court in play between the animated CofC duo of senior Caroline Newman and junior Christin Newman versus North Florida's Rebeca Pereira and Simona Weymar at No. 3 doubles.
Down 7-3 in the match, the Newman sisters won three-straight games gaining two service breaks and holding serve to inch closer to the Ospreys (1-2). They eventually battled back to force the match into extra games and rallied from a 4-1 tiebreak deficit to a 9-8 (6) victory and a 1-0 advantage leading into singles.
"The Newman's did a great job of coming back from a 7-3 deficit and fought for every point," CofC Director of Tennis Angelo Anastopoulo said. "That's what makes them the great players they are. They are just fighters out there and that gave us a lot of momentum going into singles against a very talented North Florida team."
Freshmen Samantha Maddox and Jenny Falcone increased the Cougar lead to 3-0 with straight-set victories at the No. 4 and No. 5 lines respectively. The two rookies relinquished only six games combined against their UNF opponents with Maddox serving up a love first set.
Sophomore Kelly Kambourelis clinched the fourth and deciding point for the Cougars with a 7-6 (5), 6-1 decision over No. 123-ranked Lorena Aviles, who is a transfer from Texas Tech and won the singles title at CofC's Fall Invitational. It marked the team's second individual win over a nationally-ranked opponent this season next to Caroline Newman's straight-set upset of No. 58-ranked Klara Vyskocilova of Clemson on Jan. 22.
"The freshmen did the same thing as they did against Winthrop," Anastopoulo said. "They got on the scoreboard and quickly gave us a 3-1 lead (against the No. 67-ranked team in the country). That really helped out Christin, Kelly and Caroline. Kelly Kambourelis played well and picked up a great victory over a ranked player today. She's playing some of the best tennis since she first stepped foot on campus here in Charleston."
CofC had to cancel its earlier match scheduled against Coastal Carolina at 8:30 a.m. (ET) due to the unusually cold weather conditions in the Lowcountry with temperatures in the low 30s and warming up into the 50s at mid-afternoon.
"Our players were a little bit chilly at first, but they were fighting so hard on the courts that they kept warm in the match," Anastopoulo said. "The wind died down during the middle of singles. Overall, it was a nice day to play for the players and stay under a warm blanket for the spectators. We appreciate everyone who came out for our home opener today. It was a great welcome and we appreciate all of the alumni who visited us over the CofC Homecoming Weekend."