NEWBERRY, S.C.—The Eagles were unable to start the season with two-straight wins as the Carson-Newman women's tennis team dropped its South Atlantic Conference opener to Newberry 6-3 Sunday afternoon in Newberry, S.C.
"It was a tough loss today," coach Jean Love said following the match. "We let two doubles sets get away from us early to begin the day. I'm really pleased with how we competed and gave great effort, but it is still a disappointing loss."
After taking two of three doubles matches to start the day in the Eagles' (1-1, 0-1 SAC) season-opening win over Tennessee Wesleyan Thursday afternoon, the tables were turned on Sunday as Carson-Newman dropped two-straight sets to Newberry (10-1, 5-0 SAC) to begin the day in doubles play.
C-N's No.1 paring of Ali Harris (Crossville, Tenn.) and Patricia Guerreiro (Portugal) had trouble getting things going early and lost the match's first set 8-3. Jill Corsato-Owsianka (Germany) and Brooke Sanderson (Evans, Ga.) battled in the second-seeded paring, but came out on the losing end of the 8-6 outcome.
The Eagles' No. 3 paring of Gabrielle Wood (Woodstock, Ga.) and Sydney Ledington (Corbin, Ky.) salvaged the match early on by taking their set 9-7 to give Carson-Newman its first point of the contest. The win was also the duo's first on the early season.
"Our No. 3 doubles team played gutsy by outlasting their opponents and salvaging a point out of doubles play," Love said.
Carson-Newman's first two singles sets came at the No.1 and No.3 rallies of Harris and Corsato-Owsianka. Both matches ended in Eagles' defeats in two sets as Harris dropped her set 6-3, 6-2 and Corsato-Owsianka came out on the losing end of a 6-2, 6-4 tally.
Down 4-1 over halfway through the match, Carson-Newman began a comeback.
Guerreiro and Sanderson both took their sets at No. 2 and No. 4 to bring the Eagles to within a point at 4-3. The seniors both battled throughout three sets to take the wins as Guerreiro's line read 6-7, 6-1 and 6-1 and Sanderson's card revealed a 7-5, 1-6 and 6-2 victory.
Carson-Newman was unable to battle completely back as the Eagles dropped their final two single sets to give Newberry the 6-3 win.
Wood stretched her set all the way to three before giving way to her Wolfe counterpart 6-2, 4-6 and 6-4 in the fifth-seeded matchup. After winning set one 7-5, Leddington suffered an injury in game No. 2 that forced the sophomore to retire in the No. 6 set.
"It was a battle in singles play. We lost at No. 1 and 3 singles to give them four quick points," Love said. "Then we started battling back. Patricia [Guerreiro] and Brooke [Sanderson] gutted out wins in three sets to bring the score back to 4-3 with two matches remaining. Unfortunately, we could not complete the comeback."
The Eagles will take one day off before jumping right back into SAC play as Carson-Newman hosts arch-rival Tusculum Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
To keep up with everything Carson-Newman tennis related, follow us online at cneagles.com.
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