Interview: Patricia Guerreiro
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.-- The Carson-Newman women's tennis team will hit the courts again this weekend for a pair of contests against Bellarmine and South Atlantic Conference reigning champions Wingate at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
Bellarmine (4-3) comes to town for a 2:00 p.m. matchup on Friday afternoon while conference foe Bulldogs (7-5, 4-0) will take on the Eagles (6-2, 2-2) Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m.
The Knights, who compete in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, will compete in nonconference action against Carson-Newman. Bellarmine lost in its last outing on March 15 as the Knights were on the short end of the 7-2 decision at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The squad compiled an impressive 14-3 record a season ago.
Saturday's showdown with conference foe Wingate will be a pivotal match for the surging Eagles. The reigning SAC champs were slated to finish the 2016 season atop the standing again the league released prior to the start of the season.
Currently ranked third in the conference standings, Wingate 4-0 league record sits behind's Queens and Newberry who have also not lost a match in conference play.
The Bulldogs, who completed last season with a 16-4 overall record, recorded three preseason selections on the ballot casted in early February.
Oroma Womeodu and Maria Garcia are back for another season as doubles partners after listing 16 wins together a season ago. Layla Tanik was also a preseason nod after concluding the 2015 season with an overall record of 15-5 in singles play.
Wingate lost its last outing of the season against Pfeiffer 4-5 on March 15.
Senior Patricia Guerreiro (Portugal) knows the importance this weekend could have on the team moving forward.
"We are really excited about playing Bellarmine in a nonconference game because it is a team that we have never played before, at least in my four years here," Guerreiro said. "We are really going to focus on doubles play at the beginning of the matches so we can take some pressure off of us going into singles."
A complete recap following each day of action can be found on cneagles.com following the day.
-CN-
