College of Charleston 6, Georgia Southern 1
STATESBORO, GA. - The No. 72-ranked College of Charleston women's tennis team took down Southern Conference foe Georgia Southern this afternoon by a score of 6-1 at the Hanner Tennis Complex.
It was a dominant start to SoCon play for the Cougars (4-2) as they won the doubles point and five of six singles matches. In singles, senior Christin Newman emerged victorious over Georgia Southern's Paola Garrido 6-2, 7-5 in the No. 1 position.
Freshman Brooke McAmis topped Jordana Klein of GSU in the No. 2 slot and senior Olivia McMillan earned a win in No. 6 singles.
Sophomore Jenny Falcone overcame an elbow injury to defeat Stephanie Wood of the Eagles 6-1, 6-4 in the No. 3 position and freshman Katherine Schofield fought through an illness to top Natalie Maffett of GSU 6-1, 6-2 in the No. 5 spot.
In doubles, the duos of McAmis-Falcone and Newman-Schofield came away with wins in the No. 2 and No. 3 slots, respectively to earn the doubles point for the Cougars.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University women's tennis team suffered a hard-fought 4-3 loss to cross-town rival UAB on Wednesday as the Bulldogs fell short at home for the first time this season in a hotly-contested matchup held at the Samford Tennis Center.
Samford (4-3) and UAB (6-1) split the singles matches, 3-3, but the Blazers opened the competition with a critical victory in doubles play that proved to be the decisive factor of the contest.
On courts No. 2 and 3, the Bulldogs and Blazers traded 8-6 victories, sending the clinching match to court No. 1 where UAB's combination of Rachel Daniell and Menanteau Moolman held on for a 9-8 win over Samford's Kristin Lewis and Stephanie N'tcha. With the heartbreaking loss, the Bulldogs' pairing of Lewis and N'tcha moved to 1-1 in doubles play this season.
UAB took the early 1-0 lead Wednesday and then earned singles wins on courts No. 1, 2 and 6 to claim the 4-3 team victory.
Samford's singles triumphs occurred in the middle of the lineup as N'tcha defeated Moolman on court No. 3, 6-3, 6-0, and Emily Mallory cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Elaine Simon in the No. 5 singles contest. In the only three-set match of the evening, the Bulldogs' Carita Moolman outlasted UAB's Amy Lowther, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, on court No. 4.
With their wins Wednesday, Samford's N'tcha and Mallory both improved to 5-1 in singles play this season. Moolman, the Bulldogs' true freshman from Aranos, Namibia, upped her record to 4-3 this year and a perfect 4-0 when playing on court No. 4.
Samford's doubles victory occurred on court No. 2 as the Bulldogs' tandem of Adri Lochner and Moolman defeated UAB's pairing of Caroline Faught and Sarah Witkowski, 8-6.
The Samford University women's tennis team will next be in action Saturday at noon (CST) as the Bulldogs remain at home for another key nonconference contest against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.
South Carolina 6, Furman 1
GREENVILLE, S.C. - The No. 38 South Carolina women's tennis team topped Furman, 6-1, Wednesday at the Mickel Tennis Center in Greenville, S.C.
The Gamecocks took two out of three doubles victories to clinch the doubles point. In the top doubles match-up, 57th-ranked Jaklin Alawi and Dominika Kanakova teamed up for an 8-2 win over Paladin senior Lauren Kline and sophomore Alex Moreno-Kaste. At number two doubles, South Carolina's Katerina Popova and Josefin Andersson defeated senior Michele Stanford and junior Amanda Murray, 8-6. The Paladins came away with a win at number three doubles, as the duo of junior Margaret Boyette and sophomore Kelly Sullivan recorded an 8-7 win over Elixane Lechemia and Ximena SIles Luna.
In singles play, South Carolina claimed wins in the top five matches. #59 Alawi bested #110 Kline, 6-1, 6-2, at number one, and 114th-ranked Popova defeated junior Katherine Oudin, 6-2, 6-0, in the flight two match. At number three singles, Lechemia notched a 6-4, 6-3 win over Moreno-Kaste, while Kanakova defeated Stanford, 6-4, 6-2, at number four. In flight five, Siles Luna held on for a close 6-4, 7-6 victory over Murray.
Sullivan put the Paladins on the board in the final singles match of the night, defeating Andersson, 6-4, 5-7, 1-0, at number six.
Furman (1-4) hits the road this weekend. The Paladins will play at Charlotte Saturday at noon then travel to Winthrop to face Rock Hill Sunday at 1 p.m.