JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Back-to-back weekday matches send the Carson-Newman women's tennis team on the road to Tennessee Wesleyan Tuesday afternoon before returning to its home court on the banks of Mossy Creed to host Lee Wednesday.
Both matches will serve as reschedule dates for previous match-ups that had been shuffled around due to rain-filled days earlier in February.
The Eagles (0-2) are looking to notch their first win of the season while also bouncing back from a 9-0 blanking in their first road match of the season against No. 22 North Georgia on Sunday.
That loss was the worst for C-N in its series with the Nighthawks in eight meetings since the start of the decade.
"The match against North Georgia was frustrating because we did not play well," head coach Jean Love said. "North Georgia was good, but we can play better. I hope that the team responds in the upcoming matches. We need to play better."
Tuesday's meeting with Tennessee Wesleyan is a makeup from the previously scheduled Feb. 13 match and will be the season opener for the Bulldogs who were ranked 24th in the NAIA Preseason Coaches' poll on Jan. 23.
In 2017, the team was 12-7 overall, 6-2 in Appalachian Athletic Conference play. They made it into the AAC Tournament where they were defeated by SCAD Atlanta in the finals, 5-0. They closed out the season as the No. 24 team in the NAIA's final poll of the season.
First-year head coach Francisco Gallardo now sits at the helm of the Bulldogs squad after playing for the men's team for four years and serving as an assistant coach for the men last season. His team returns eight players from last year's roster including 2017 AAC All-Conference Team member Haruka Hitrata.
Since 2013, the Eagles have remained undefeated against the Bulldogs, garnering a 4-0 record against TWU.
The last time Tennessee Wesleyan and C-N faced off was Feb. 24 of last season. That day, the Eagles walked away with an 8-1 victory at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex. The Eagles were victorious in two of the three doubles matches that day, winning at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, the opening point coming from the tandem of Ali Harris (Crossville, Tenn.) and Jill Corsato-Owsianka (Duesseldorf, Germany) at the No. 1 spot followed up by the second-seeded duo of Alisa Liashova (Ukraine) and Klara Vuckovic (Germany).
Singles play was dominated by the Eagles as Love's squad swept the rest of the day with all six of the matches being decided in straight sets.
The Flames of Lee will make their way to Carson-Newman on Wednesday to make up for the missed match on Feb. 10 after they first host West Georgia on Tuesday.
Lee (1-0) comes into the match looking to stay on the right path after a season-opening victory over Erskine, 5-4, last Friday, despite being down two players due to the flu. The Flames notched doubles wins at the top two positions as top-seeded Francesca Tondi and Marta Garcia-Nieto picked up a 9-7 win while Carley Sickinger and Nicole Shennett took an 8-6 victory.
Wins at the first three spots in singles play could not help the Flames defeat the Flying Fleet. Tondi, also at the top spot on the single side, took two straight sets to victory, 6-2 and 6-1. Garcia-Nieto at the second-seed picked up a 6-4, 6-3 win followed by Sickinger at the three-spot, taking back-to-back 6-4 sets.
Tondi was the only member of head coach Patric Hynes' team to be named an All-Gulf South Conference team at the conclusion of 2017 as she was lauded as a Second-Team member. She recorded an 8-3 record in singles play while teaming up with Garcia-Nieto for a 6-6 record at the No. 1 doubles spot.
The Eagles and Flames have met three times since 2012, C-N winning the last two. Lee's last victory over the Eagles came on Feb. 18, 2012 in a 9-0 sweep at Mossy Creek.
The last time Lee and C-N faced off was on April 8, 2016. The Eagles left Cleveland, Tenn. with a dominating 7-2 victory. Doubles play opened with Carson-Newman taking an early 2-1 lead, picking up victories in Corsato-Owsianka and Patricia Guerreiro's first-spot 8-6 match and the third-spot 8-6 win for Gabrielle Wood and Mallory Jackson.
C-N won all but the No. 3 match on the singles side to take the win.
Both Tuesday's match between the Eagles and Bulldogs in Athens, Tenn. and Wednesday's tangle with Lee at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex are set to begin at 1:30 p.m. Results and recaps will follow both days of competition on cneagles.com.
