JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.— The Eagles continue to roll, winning five of their last six matches thanks to an 8-1 rout over Lenoir-Rhyne Wednesday afternoon at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex to pick up their second consecutive South Atlantic Conference win.
"The women played well today," coach Jean Love said. "We had one hiccup in the first doubles match, but otherwise it was a nice team win for us – not just the score but how we played."
The one hiccup Love is referring to was the 8-4 loss Patricia Guerreiro (Portugal) and Jill Corsato-Owsinaka (Germany) suffered to begin the afternoon for the Eagles in the first-seeded doubles competition.
The loss was only Guerreiro's third loss of any kind on the year as the senior remains undefeated in singles play after taking down Marta Escanero Funes 6-1 in two straight-sets to record her seventh win of the season in the category.
Brooke Sanderson (Evans, Ga.), who teamed up with Ali Harris (Crossville, Tenn.) in the second round of doubles play to contribute an 8-2 win, only sports two losses overall on the season as the senior improved her singles mark to 7-1 on the season with a 6-4 two-set win at No. 4 singles.
Corsato-Owsianka notched her sixth win of the season with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Julia Ponomareva in the third-seeded singles match.
The three experienced players have undoubtedly led the way for Carson-Newman so far in four conference tilts.
Haleigh Chastain (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Mallory Jackson (Erwin, Tenn.) also contributed a win together in doubles play as the duo hunted down a pair of Bears 8-4 in the No. 3 slot.
Good play all around attributed a sweep of singles play that accounted for the 8-1 conference win over Lenoir-Rhyne.
Gabrielle Wood (Woodstock, Ga.) started things of for the Eagles with a win in the fifth-seeded contest, 6-2 in straight sets. Sanderson would then follow with her win at No. 4 before giving way to Harris a court over in the 6-3, 6-4 win in the top-seeded matchup.
Guerreior and Corsato-Owsinka then took care of their opponents in the second and third-seeded matches before giving way to Jackson to finish things off for Carson-Newman with the 8-6 win decision in the sixth and final singles match of the contest.
"The No. 2 doubles team of Brooke and Ali and the No. 3 doubles team of Mallory and Haleigh really got off to a fast start. Gabrielle started us off with the first singles win at No. 5, then Brooke won a tight match at No. 4. Ali came through with a big win at No. 1 singles and then Patricia, Jill, and Mallory finished off the sweep in singles."
Carson-Newman will hit the courts again this weekend with another pair of home matches at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex. The Eagles will welcome Bellarmine on Friday for a 2:00 p.m. serve time and Wingate on Saturday for an 11:00 a.m. showdown.
A complete recap following each day of events can be found on cneagles.com following the match.
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