C-N looks for turnaround, start Conference play against LMU

VIDEO: Jean Love Interview

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – After more than a week away from action, Carson-Newman opens its South Atlantic Conference schedule on Tuesday afternoon as Lincoln Memorial visits Mossy Creek after six matches against nonconference opponents.

"There's some days we've been better than others, but we have learned a lot, I think each person has," head coach Jean Love said. "We've learned some things about our singles play, about our doubles play, so we're ready."

C-N has spent over a week removed from outside competition due to unfavorable weather. The team's last match was played on March 3 in which the Eagles (3-3, 0-0 SAC) saw a three-match winning streak come to an end against the Bellarmine Knights with a 6-3 loss.

Love's team was only able to garner one win in doubles play from the No. 3 tandem of Hannah Price (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Mallory Jackson (Erwin, Tenn.) before Jill Corsato-Owsianka (Düesseldorf, Germany) and Alisa Liashova (Ukraine) picked up a pair of singles wins.

Liashova's win marked her fifth-straight win, putting her at 5-1 at this point in the season.

Corsato-Owsianka's victory at the top spot marked her 38^th career singles win. She needs just one more singles victory to bypass Patricia Guerreiro for the most this decade.

"Over the last decade here, there's been some pretty good women's tennis players come through here, so for her to, you know, have the most singles wins with the next one she gets for this decade, I think that's just a testament to what she's been able to do in her time here because she is a senior year."

LMU (7-2, 1-0 SAC) commenced conference competition on Saturday with a 7-2 win over Catawba. The Catawba Indians took the No. 1 doubles match as Marta Pinol and Angelica Solano fell 8-7. In singles play, all but one match fell in favor of the Railsplitters. The only match LMU lost in the second portion of the day came at the No. 2 spot as Kristin Vogel dropped back-to-back 6-4 sets.

The Lady Railsplitters were selected to finish at fifth by the conference's coaches in the preseason poll after going 13-4 last season, 8-3 in SAC competition. Pinol earned a spot on the All-SAC singles second team while the tandem of Johanna Delisse and Julia Loos were tabbed a first team doubles pair.

Pinol has split time at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions with a 7-4 overall record. She has been undefeated in two appearances at the second-seeded position.

LMU has found extreme success at the third-seed spot in singles play with Loos going 6-0 while Julia Valls has garnered a 3-0 record.

The last time the teams faced off was on March 28 of last season when the Eagles picked up a 6-3 victory at home. C-N took two of the three doubles matches to start the day before winning three of its four singles matches in straight-sets. Ali Harris at the No. 1 spot defeated Johanna Delisse in a three-set battle.

Since 2010, the Eagles and 'Splitters have met eight times with LMU holding a 5-3 advantage.

"It's going to come down to each person trusting and believing in themselves and their teammates," Love said. "It's just right there for us because if we could come out and compete well and do what we can do, then we're there. We're in this match."

The Eagles and 'Splitters are scheduled to begin play at 1:30 p.m. at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex. A full recap and results will be available on cneagles.com after the match.