Appalachian State 4, Georgia Southern 3
STATESBORO, Ga. - Following the team's 6-1 win over Jacksonville on Wednesday, Appalachian State University women's tennis returned to Southern Conference action with a 4-3 win over Georgia Southern at Hanner Tennis Complex on Friday. The Mountaineers (9-4, 2-1 SoCon) have now won six of their last seven matches, while the Eagles (4-9, 1-3 SoCon) have lost their last five straight.
In doubles, Georgia picked up the first point with an 8-2 win at No. 1, but Appalachian's No. 2 pair of seniors Gisela Fernandez and Gabriela Celi evened the match with an 8-5 victory. At No. 3, Georgia Southern pulled out a 9-7 win to give the Eagles the doubles point.
While GSU easily controlled the No. 1 singles match, Appalachian junior Jennifer Ansari dominated her No. 2 matchup, scoring shutouts in both sets for a 6-0, 6-0 win.
Junior Kim-Lea Dinh evened the match at 2-2 with her win at No. 5 singles. Dinh escaped the first set with a narrow 7-6 (7-5) win and scored a late advantage to win the latter set, 7-5.
Sophomore Jessica Thaggard gave the Mountaineers their first lead by holding strong in her two-set win, 6-4, 6-3 to give the Apps a 3-2 edge.
Freshman Gabby Gabriel dropped her first set, 4-6, at No 6 singles but maintained her composure to take the second, 7-5. In the decisive set, Gabriel shined and broke out a 6-1 win to clinch her own match as well as the overall team win, 4-2.
In the day's final match on the courts, Georgia Southern scored its second singles win with a 6-7(5-7), 6-2, 6-3 to finalize Appalachian's 4-3 victory.
Western Michigna 5, Davidson 2
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Brites Moniz-Soares pushed her career-best win streak in singles play to five straight, but Davidson fell to visiting Western Michigan 5-2 on Friday afternoon at the Covington Tennis Courts in women's tennis.
Davidson fell to 3-8 overall, while Western Michigan reached the 10-win plateau and moved to 10-6. Head coach Betsy Kuhle of the Broncos is now one win away from 500 for her career.
The match started out with three tightly played doubles matches, but WMU swept all three spots to take a 1-0 lead. Catherine Wood and Elise Held played to a tie-breaker, falling 8-7, while Katharine Dicconson and Moniz-Soares saw their two-match win streak halted after an 8-6 defeat.
The 'Cats No. 1 doubles team, Nisha Crouser and Stephani Synn, played well too, but fell 8-4.
Moniz-Soares and Nisha Crouser scored both of Davidson's points in the match, capturing singles wins at No. 2 and 3. The sophomore duo won their eighth and fourth matches, respectively. Moniz-Soares rebounded from a 6-4 first-set defeat, to get 7-5 and 10-5 wins to run her record to 8-3.
Crouser rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 win over Rachel Denny, improving to 4-5 on the year.
Davidson will now play Boston, March 17, in Charleston, S.C., as part of a neutral site match.