Georgia Southern 4, Davidson 2
STATESBORO, Ga. - Returning to Southern Conference play after a pair of non-conference matches, Davidson fell short on the road at Georgia Southern, 4-2, despite sophomore Brites Moniz-Soares winning her personal-best seventh straight singles match on Saturday afternoon in women's tennis.
Davidson saw its record fall to 3-13 overall (0-3 SoCon), while the Eagles improved to 5-12 overall and 2-6 in SoCon action. The Wildcats still lead the all-time series, 18-7.
Moniz-Soares cruised to her 10th win of the season and seventh in a row when she picked up a 6-1, 6-1 decision at No. 2. The sophomore also remained a perfect 3-0 in league matches.
Fellow classmate Nisha Crouser gave Davidson it's second point of the match with a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 4 to improve to 5-9 on the season.
Catherine Wood nearly gave the 'Cats a third point, playing a strong singles match at No. 5. The junior netted wins in nine games, but fell in a two-set match, 6-4, 7-5, at No. 5.
The match started out with singles play due to rain in the area, which eventually did come and delayed play, resulting in none of the doubles matches being played.
UNCG 7, Wofford 0
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG's women's tennis team remained perfect in Southern Conference play, taking a 7-0 win over Wofford on Saturday at the UNCG Tennis Courts.
The start of the match was delayed an hour and a half because of overnight rains that soaked the courts, but once the action got under way, UNCG (11-4, 6-0 SoCon) breezed through doubles play to claim an early 1-0 lead.
UNCG's Kayla Gammie and Annette Rios got the ball rolling with an 8-1 win over Emily Przystawski and Lucy Schermerhorn at No. 3, and Lucy Dougherty and Niltooli Wilkins clinched the point by an identical score over Sarah Evans and Othilia Lindqvist at No. 1. Devon Sutherland and Alex Whitehead rounded out the sweep with an 8-3 win over Julia Paulson and Samantha Sullivan at No. 2.
In singles play, Spartan freshman Stephanie Falcon quickly dispatched Przystawski at No. 5, 6-1, 6-0. Dougherty followed suit with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Lindqvist at No. 4, and Whitehead clinched the match with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Paulson at No. 2. Wilkins then wrapped up her 6-3, 6-1 win over Evans at No. 1.
At No. 4, Rios won her first set over Wofford's Audrey Coventry 6-2 before dropping the second, 4-6. Rios won the super tiebreaker by a 10-4 count to claim the win.
Sutherland mounted an impressive rally at No. 6 to complete the sweep, regrouping from a first-set loss for the 4-6, 7-6 (7-0), 1-0 (10-2) win over Sullivan. Sutherland won 17 of the final 19 points in the two tiebreakers for the win.
Wofford fell to 4-11 overall and 0-5 in league play. The Spartans moved a half-game ahead of idle College of Charleston (5-0 in the SoCon), while Furman, which also entered the weekend at 5-0 in the league, takes on Elon on Saturday.
Appalachian State 5, Western Carolina 0
BOONE, N.C. - The Mountaineers scored 62 games to the Wildcats' 12, as the Appalachian State University women's tennis team topped rival Western Carolina, 5-0, in Southern Conference action at ASU Tennis Courts on Saturday.
Appalachian (10-7, 3-3 SoCon) snapped a three-match losing streak with the victory, while Western Carolina fell to 1-12 (0-5 SoCon).
In doubles action, Mountaineer seniors Gisela Fernandez and Gabriela Celi made quick work of their No. 2 match, jumping out to a 5-0 lead before taking an 8-1 win.
In the No. 1 doubles match, Appalachian juniors Ellie Linsell and Jennifer Ansari needed a bit more time to seal the deal, but the Black and Gold comfortably took the match, 8-2. WCU did not field a No. 3 team, rounding out the Appalachian doubles sweep.
Appalachian State was spotted its second point as the shorthanded Wildcats were forced to forfeit the No. 6 position.
ASU junior Kim-Lea Dinh took the court at No. 4 and vanquished her WCU rival in a 6-0, 6-0 shutout to give the Black and Gold a 3-0 lead in the team scoring.
The clinching point came in anticlimactic fashion as Celi won her No. 3 singles match by retirement, 4-1. Shortly thereafter, senior Blakeley Bean tore through her No. 5 singles match in a 6-0, 6-0 rout to keep the Mountaineer momentum going.
In the top individual spots, Western Carolina put up a more substantial fight. Linsell found herself trailing 0-1 in her No. 1 match before collecting herself for a 6-1 set. Ansari held a slim lead for most of her first set, winning 6-4 at No. 2.
With Linsell two points from winning her match, an unexpected downpour put a damper on the match, and action was halted, giving Appalachian the 5-0 win.
Furman 4, Elon 3
ELON, N.C. - The Elon University women's tennis team battled hard, but came up just short against Furman on Saturday, March 31, as the Phoenix dropped a 4-3 decision to the Paladins at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
Elon falls to 13-6 overall and 4-3 in the Southern Conference with the loss, while Furman improves to 11-7 (6-0 SoCon).
The Phoenix claimed an early 1-0 advantage after taking two out of three doubles matches to win the point. Jordan Johnston and Frida Jansaker shined in the top spot, claiming an 8-6 win over Furman's Alex Moreno-Kaste and Michele Stanford. Johnston and Jansaker have now won six straight and improve to 16-2 on the year with the win.
Briana Berne and Viviana Stavreva clinched the doubles point for the maroon and gold at No. 3 doubles, as the duo registered a hard-fought 8-5 victory over the Paladins' Kelly Sullivan and Lauren Kline. Rookies Maria Camara Ruiz and Barbora Lazarova fell just short at No. 2, dropping a tought 10-8 decision to Furman's Margaret Boyette and Katherine Oudin.
But the Paladins stormed back to take a 3-1 match lead after winning the first three singles matches at numbers two, three and five.
Jansaker helped limit the deficit to one, 3-2, after an impressive performance at No. 4 singles. Jansaker topped Furman's Margaret Boyette, 6-4, 6-3, to give the Phoenix momentum. Jansaker has won 13 of her last 14 matches in singles play.
Johnston needed three sets to knot the match at 3-all at No. 1 singles. Johnston claimed a dominant 6-1 win in the first set against Lauren Kline, but dropped the second set, 6-3, to force a decisive third set. The sophomore from Snellville, Ga., rebounded for an impressive 6-2 victory to bring the Phoenix back.
Camara Ruiz battled through a tough match at No. 6 singles that nearly pushed it to a third set, but the rookie dropped a hard-fought 6-2, 7-5 decision to Amanda Murray that clinched the victory for the Paladins.