VIDEO: Love Interview
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Carson-Newman women's tennis teams looks to pick up victory number one on the season when they travel to Kentucky on Friday night to take on Bellarmine.
"We competed well but made to many errors and need to tighten up on some things," Carson-Newman tennis coach Jean Love said. "We have three new doubles combinations from last year and we found out what we needed to work on. A few of the women played well in singles, we competed well and even the matches we did not win they were good matches. We found out that we have a lot of heart and that we competed well."
Carson-Newman (0-2) is looking to avoid going 0-3 for the first time in recent memory for the team. Bellarmine (3-1) will look to continue their winning ways after a 7-2 victory over Campbellsville University in their last outing.
Last Season the Eagles picked up a 6-3 victory over the Knights in Mossy Creek. Carson-Newman went 4-2 in singles play and 2-1 in doubles play. In order to duplicate their success from last season, the Eagles will have to pick up key victories in doubles play.
Jill Corsato-Owsianka (Germany) and Alisha Liashova (Ukraine) were the only members of the women's tennis team to pick up victories this season. Corsato-Owsianka picked up a victory on Saturday afternoon against Palm Beach Atlantic, while Liashova picked up her victory on Friday afternoon against Florida Tech.
"Jill (Corsato-Owsianka) has already a couple of years of college experience under her belt," Love said. "What you see is a consitent level of play from her every time, she plays well and does not make a lot of mistakes. Alisha (Liashova) as a new player just getting to learn her game a little bit more, she is very competitive and has good and solid ground strokes. She does not make many errors and competes until the end. Both of them play together at No.1 doubles and they perform very solidly and do not make many mistakes."
Maggie Walroth leads the Knights with a 3-1 record at the No.1 singles position this season. Jennifer Skonieczny is 2-2 at the No.2 position and Mairin Cotter is 4-0 with three of the four victories coming at the No.6 position.
The Knights so far this season have exceled in doubles play. The No.1 doubles team of Ashley Jonathan and Walroth are 4-0 on the season. The No.3 doubles team of Cotter and Marissa Kovach are also 3-0 on the season.
"We will have to play good doubles, we need to be more aggressive and attack more than we did in Florida." Love said, "We'll just do our thing and if it's good enough then it's good enough."
-CN-
