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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman took an early 3-0 lead in Thursday's match with Delta State and did not look back, garnering a 5-2 win at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
Carson-Newman (6-4) clinched the victory with two out of three doubles wins and three of its first four singles matches to win its first-ever meeting with Delta State (1-7). All of the singles wins the Eagles took on the day came in straight sets.
"The women, we had one match that we probably should have won and didn't win," Carson-Newman coach Jim Frederick said. "We were up in the third set and didn't win, but for the most part, they got the job done. Played pretty good. Lost one doubles match we should have won, but it didn't affect the singles."
The Eagles jumped onto a 1-0 lead through doubles play with wins at No. 1 and No. 2. Ana Carla Resende (Minas Gerais, Brazil) and Abby Reis (Des Moines, Iowa) quickly took down Fabiola Cardenas and Sophie St. Amant, 6-3, in the top matchup. At the second-seed, Klara Vuckovic (Reutlingen, Germany) and Alisa Liashova (Ukraine) faced a 7-5 battle against Beth Owen and Ione' Deroode to lock up the early point.
At No. 3 doubles, Hannah Price (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Tash Forrest (Jersey, United Kingdom) fell in a tough 7-6 fight with Valentine Colin and Katheryne Valencia Perez earning the tiebreaker at 7-5.
Price opened up singles action with a 6-1, 6-3 straight-set win over Sofia Colvee at No. 3.
At the No. 1 spot, Resende continued her winning ways with 6-2 and 6-4 sets over Cardenas.
Both Price and Resende have won three-straight matches now this season, the only multiple-match winning streaks on the team.
In the fifth-flight, Liashova dropped a 7-5 first set to Valencia Perez before answering with her own 7-5 win to force the game into a third set. There, the Lady Statesmen narrowed C-N's lead to 3-1 with a 6-4 decision in the frame.
The match officially fell into the Eagles' wings at No. 6 as Vuckovic quickly defeated Deroode in 6-0, 6-1 sets.
Anita Chornei (Kyiv, Ukraine) added onto C-N's lead with 6-2 and 6-1 wins over Nathalia Stelzer in the fourth-flight.
Delta State took possession of the last point on the day we Colin winning the first set over Reis at the No. 2 spot, 6-0. Reis answered with a 7-5 showing in the second, pushing the match into a tiebreaking third that fell in favor of Delta State, 10-4.
Saturday's previously scheduled match with Bluefield has been canceled. The Eagles will return to action on Wednesday with a South Atlantic Conference trip to Virginia-Wise. That match is set to begin at 3:30 p.m.
