VIDEO: Jean Love Interview

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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman women's tennis team played a hard tough match against North Georgia, but fell 7-2 on Wednesday afternoon.

"We played pretty decently today in spots, we did not play poorly." Carson-Newman tennis coach Jean Love said, "We just need to clean up a few things. What we're going to do is look at today and take some positives away from it and we are going to continue that. We'll also look at an area of improvement that we would like to see based upon today's competition."

Carson-Newman (8-8, 7-3) was only able to grab one of the three doubles matches to begin the afternoon against North Georgia (18-4, 8-3). The No.1 tandem of Ali Harris (Crossville, Tenn.) and Jill Corsato-Owsianka (Germany) gave North Georgia's duo Kathrin Waidner and Felicia Baratta a run for their money. Harris and Corsato-Owsianka had a lead, but saw it diminished by Waidner and Baratta who forced a tiebreaker. The Nighthawks took round one of doubles play 9-8.

In No. 2 doubles the Eagles tandem of Alisa Liashova (Ukraine) and Klara Vuckovic (Germany) got back to their winning ways, after a hiccup against Mars Hill last weekend ended a six-match winning streak. The duo defeated the paring of Holly Bennett and Emma Etelalahti 8-6, for their 11-win of the season.

"Once again, they just really stepped it up today and played well." Love said, "They have just gotten better and better as the season has gone along."

The Eagles final pairing in doubles play was Lindy Tatum (Henderson, Tenn.) and Sydney Lediington (Corbin, Ky.) The duo lost 8-2 to the tandem of Karina Gurgenyan and Lexa Loden. The loss ends a two-match winning streak for the No. 3 doubles team.

Singles play did not get much better for the Eagles. The No. 1 singles match featured Harris and Waidner. Harris was unable to keep her winning streak alive as she dropped the match in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. The sophomore from Crossville is now 6-10 this season at the top spot in the Eagles lineup.

Liashova had started to find success of late in the No. 2 singles position winning her past two matches. Today, Liashova found herself in the loss column after a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Baratta. The native from Ukraine is now 3-5 on the season at No.2 single and is now 7-9 overall on the season.  

Corsato-Owsianka attempted to keep her five-match winning streak alive, but ran into Gurgenyan at the No. 3 singles spot. Gurgenyan took the first set 6-2, Corsato-Owsianka battled back winning the second set 7-6. In the third and final set Gurgenyan overpowered Corsato-Owsianka 6-1 to put the Nighthawks up 5-1. Corsato-Owsianka is 9-7 on the year and lost just her second match at the No. 3 singles position.

In No. 4 singles Vuckovic was unable to carry the momentum from her doubles victory into her singles match. The freshman from Germany lost in straight sets 6-0, 6-3. Vuckovic is now 8-8 on the season and is 6-4 in her last 10 outings.

Tatum played one of the closest matches all season at the No.5 singles spot. The freshman out of Henderson, Tennessee won the first set with ease 6-2 over Loden. Tatum was unable to close out the second set losing 7-5. The final set went into a tie-break and Loden came out on top 10-7. Tatum is now 8-10 on the season and 7-9 in conference play.

The lone win in singles play came from Ledington at the No. 6 singles position. The junior jumped out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back at her competition, winning 8-5. Ledington has now won four straight matches and is 8-8 on the year.

Carson-Newman will play host to Queens on Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. 

-CN-