VIDEO: Jean Love Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – With a three-match winning streak to its name, the Carson-Newman women's tennis team plays host to a Bellarmine team that has yet to find a blemish on its record in a Saturday morning match at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
"We've got to come out once again and do what we do and not worry about the other people," head coach Jean Love said. "We've got to do what we do and play some good percentage doubles. If we do that, we'll be in position to win some of the matches."
The Eagles (3-2) took a strong 8-1 victory over Martin Methodist last Saturday including just its second doubles sweep of the season.
"We've tried some different combinations to see what we might like and what we don't like," Love mentioned. "So, I think, we've started to hone in on some combinations that we like and so I think that's helped a little bit in terms of playing better doubles."
Singles play heavily fell in favor of the Eagles, winning all but one of the matches. A majority of the C-N matches were determined in straight-set wins, but the No. 1 match between Jill Corsato-Owsianka (Düesseldorf, Germany) and Skylar McDonald saw Corsato-Owsianka fall 6-3 in the first set before battling back in the second 6-4 to force a third set tiebreaker that the senior ended up winning, 10-5.
Alisa Liashova (Ukraine), Hannah Price (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Klara Vuckovic (Germany) all enter the match on three-match singles winning streaks, each holding 4-1 records.
The Knights (9-0) come into the game following a 9-0 shutout of Truman State this past Sunday. Bellarmine won all three of its doubles matches in dominating fashion, two of them being 8-0 blankings by the No. 2 tandem of Jennifer Skonieczny and Ava Ratcliff and the No. 3 pair of Mairin Cotter and Bess Fley.
Singles play saw the Knights win all six matches in straight-sets with 11 of the 12 featuring a four or more point victory. The closest set came in the second of the top-seeded match as Bellarmine's Maggie Walroth won 6-4 following a 6-0 first set.
In his 14th year at the helm of the women's program, head coach John Mican's squad was picked to finish third in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Women's coaches' preseason poll in January. This followed a 2017 campaign that saw the team racking up an 18-5 record, tying for the best CLVC regular-season finish in program history, while also going 5-1 in league play. The Knights entered postseason play but fell to then-14th-ranked Drury, 5-1.
This season, the Knights are led by senior Mairin Cotter and junior Maggie Walroth who have both split time at the No. 1 position. Senior Marissa Kovach became the fourth person in program history to record 100 career wins back in October, now sitting at 62 singles wins and 42 doubles wins. She sits at 10-3 in singles play this season, mostly at the No. 4 spot, and has garnered a 6-3 doubles record at the second and third spots.
The Knights have seen most of their singles success coming at the fifth and sixth spots, going 9-0 at both spots thus far.
"Last year, we went up to Bellarmine and they were very tough," Love mentioned. "They'll be tough coming in again this year and that's ok because we've got a decent team as well.
"This will be a good opportunity for us to play another quality team and kind of see where we're at and what we can do."
Since the series' inception in 2012, Bellarmine leads 2-1. The last Eagles' victory against the Knights came in 2016 with a 6-3 advantage. The last match, however, fell in favor of Bellarmine as the Knights topped the Eagles with a 9-0 shutout last season.
Saturday's match between the Eagles and Knights is slated to begin at 11 a.m. at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex. Full results and a recap will follow on CNeagles.com.
