JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.—The Carson-Newman women's tennis team rallied to the final two matches of the day, but ultimately failed to pick up its first South Atlantic Conference win of the season as the Eagles fell 6-3 to Coker Friday afternoon at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
"This was a hard fought match with the outcome being decided with the last two singles matches on the court," coach Jean Love said. "Hats off to our opponents."
Coker (3-7, 2-1) came into the contest having already played to conference opponents on the year. The Eagles (4-2, 0-2) on the other hand has not gotten a taste of SAC action since a Feb. 20 matchup at Newberry where C-N narrowly missed out on the come-from-behind win.
Friday's action started on a 3-2 run as Coker held the early advantage coming out of doubles play.
Jennifer Mezel teamed up with Bailey Palmer to take down the Eagles' No. 1 pairing of Ali Harris (Crossville, Tenn.) and Patricia Guerreiro (Portugal) 8-3 to begin the afternoon.
Brooke Sanderson (Evans, Ga.) and Jill Corsato-Owsianka (Germany) then rallied in the second-seeded contest to take down a pair of Cobras 8-1. C-N would then give way at No. 3 as Gabrielle Wood (Woodstock, Ga.) and Hannah Ayers (Woodstock, Ga.) came up short 7-2 against Ragan Palmer and Suzanna Mickey.
"Brooke and Jill started us off with our only doubles win at No. 2," Love said. "We didn't play good doubles in the first and third spots, and that would wind up costing us dearly."
Carson-Newman would then take two of the three singles matches to begin the second half of competition.
Following Harris's loss (2-6, 6-1 and 6-1) in the first singles match, Guerreior would defeat Bailey Palmer 4-6, 7-6 and 6-3 at No. 2, while Corsato-Owsianka had her way in the third-seeded match over Jessi Campos, winning 6-3, 6-2 in two sets.
"Patricia and Jill came through with victories at No. 2 and 3 singles, and that tied the match at 3-3," Love said. "Unfortunately, we could not get wins at in the last three singles matches. Gabrielle and Mallory played well even though they lost."
Ragan Palmer took the No. 4 match 6-3, 6-0 over Sanderson and Suzanna Mickey was able to outlast Wood in the fourth contest, winning 4-6, 6-2 and 6-4.
The Eagles concluded the day with a loss in the final singles match as Mallory Jackson (Erwin, Tenn.) came up short against Sarah Elliot 7-5 in two sets.
Carson-Newman will take Saturday off before returning to action Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. with another SAC contest against Lenoir-Rhyne.
A complete recap following Sunday's contest can be found on cneagles.com.
-CN-
