Singles play stalls Eagles in loss to Splitters
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – After opening the match with a sweep in doubles action, Carson-Newman fell victim to numerous two-set defeats in singles play, falling to Lincoln Memorial, 4-3, on Wednesday at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – After opening the match with a sweep in doubles action, Carson-Newman fell victim to numerous two-set defeats in singles play, falling to Lincoln Memorial, 4-3, on Wednesday at the Buddy Catlett Tennis Complex.
Carson-Newman (5-4, 1-2 South Atlantic Conference) started the match with a 1-0 advantage for a second-straight match before seeing Lincoln Memorial (10-2, 2-0 SAC) rally with wins at No. 6, 4 and 2 singles to take a commanding 3-1 lead that the Eagles could not overcome.
The loss moves C-N 4-7 against the 'Splitters since 2010 but moves the series to an even 3-3 when playing in Jefferson City.
"The girls played great doubles and then just really came out flat in singles," Carson-Newman coach Jim Frederick said. "We still had a chance at the end to win it."
The Eagles jumped out with an early lead thanks to a clean sweep in doubles action. The No. 3 pairing of Hannah Price (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Tash Forrest (Jersey, United Kingdom) took down Kristin Vogel and Samantha Hogan, 6-2, with the No. 1 tandem of Ana Carla Resende (Minas Gerais, Brazil) and Abby Reis (Des Moines, Iowa) using a 6-3 decision to defeat Johanna Delisse and Julia Valls. Klara Vuckovic (Reutlingen, Germany) and Alisa Liashova (Ukraine) closed up the opening portion with a 6-4 win over Kiersten Waugh and Amanda Dahlstrom.
Both Vuckovic and Anita Chornei (Kyiv, Ukraine) fell in the first singles matches of the day at the No. 6 and No. 4 spots, respectively, with 6-2 and 6-1 sets.
LMU gained a 3-1 advantage at the second-spot in the singles lineup as Julia Valls spoiled Reis' first singles match of the spring, 7-6 and 6-2.
"We played poorly and four and six, and that's disappointing," Frederick said. "I have to kind of talk to the other coaches, look at what we have to do. Then at one, three and five, we won at one, we won at three, five we didn't play bad but we were never in the match."
Spots one and three in the lineup brought a turn in the tide for the Orange and Blue, but they bookended Liashova's 6-2 and 6-2 losses at the No. 5 flight to Dahlstrom that solidified the win for LMU.
Resende defeated Delisse in the top matchup for the two sides in steep 6-3, 6-2 fashion to give the sophomore back-to-back wins on the season and cut C-N's deficit to one at 3-2.
Price fell into the only three-set match of the day against Waugh at No. 3. The junior shutout the first set with a 6-0 win before Waugh forced a third set on a 7-5 battle. Price took control in the third with a 6-2 decision to close out the day.
The second match of the homestand starts at 2 p.m. Thursday, facing Delta State.
