Davidson 6, Western Carolina 1
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Davidson got back on the winning track when it rolled to a 6-1 Southern Conference win on Wednesday afternoon at Covington Tennis Courts in women's tennis.
Davidson earned its first win since Feb. 17, improving to 4-15 overall and earned its first league victory to run its mark to 1-5. Western dropped to 1-12 overall and 0-5 in league play.
The 'Cats got the match going with strong play in doubles, sweeping all three spots. The No. 1 team of Brites Moniz-Soares and Stephani Synn cruised to an 8-2 victory, their first as a pair. Also scoring their first win as a duo was Katharine Dicconson and Nisha Crouser, scoring an 8-4 win at No. 2.
Frizzi Bschorer and Elise Held wrapped up the doubles point with a 8-0 blanking of Sarah Walters and Taylor Casey at No. 3.
Moniz-Soares, Dicconson, Crouser and Held all earned singles wins, while Catherine Wood sealed up the team victory. Moniz-Soares scored a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 triumph at No. 2 to improve to 11-5 on the year. She's 4-2 in league play.
Crouser netted a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 4 for her sixth victory of the season. Held and Wood had their best singles matches of the year, scoring a pair of 6-0, 6-0 decisions at No. 5 and 6. The two Wildcats earned their second and fourth wins on the season, respectively.
Dicconson scored her first SoCon win when she won a super tie-breaker after the team match had been decided. She netted a 10-7 win as the tie-breaker was forced when Karen Jimeniz won the second set, 7-5. The senior Dicconson had started the match strong with a 6-2 triumph in the first set.
UNCG 5, Charlotte 2
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Using a makeshift lineup, UNCG's women's tennis team ran its winning streak to eight matches with a 5-2 win over Charlotte on Wednesday at the 49ers' Halton-Wagner Tennis Complex.
Playing without No. 1 player Niltooli Wilkins, the two-time reigning Southern Conference Player of the Month, the Spartans (13-4, 7-0 SoCon) swept through doubles play and picked up four singles wins.
Kayla Gammie and Annette Rios, UNCG's usual No. 3 doubles squad, played up a flight and still cruised to an 8-1 win over the 49ers' Dominica Nemec and Natsuko Takayanagi at No. 2 to run their winning streak to 11 straight matches. Alex Whitehead and Devon Sutherland, the Spartans' usual No. 2, earned an 8-6 win over Lisa Grosselius and Anna Ekelund at No. 1 to clinch the point. The win was that duo's ninth in a row.
Lucy Dougherty and Stephanie Falcon grabbed an 8-6 win over Andrea Rivera and Emmanuelle Briant at No. 3 to complete the sweep.
In singles action, Takayanagi evened the score when UNCG's Dilara Yurtkuran retired after dropping her first set, 6-2. Whitehead, a junior playing at No. 1 for the first time since her freshman season, earned a straight-sets win over Rivera, taking a 6-2, 6-1 victory to put the Spartans back on top.
Sutherland followed with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Briant at No. 5, but Grosselius kept Charlotte in it with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Annette Rios at No. 3. Gammie, playing just her second dual singles contest of the season, clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Nemec at No. 6.
Falcon rounded out the scoring with her 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 1-0 (10-6) win over Ekelund at No. 4.
Charlotte (13-4), which was also playing without its top player, Alexandra Zinn, lost its second straight at home after opening 9-0 there.
First-place UNCG gets back into league play Saturday when it hosts fellow SoCon unbeaten College of Charleston (17-4, 6-0) at the UNCG Tennis Courts at noon.