In heartbreaking fashion, C-N Women’s Tennis falls in the conference opener to Lenoir-Rhyne
The Eagles fought after falling in the doubles point, but narrowly missed out on a win from strong singles play. C-N is 0-1 in conference play after the 3-4 loss to LR.
HICKORY, N.C. – The Eagles fought after falling in the doubles point, but narrowly missed out on a win from strong singles play. C-N is 0-1 in conference play after the 3-4 loss to LR.
The Eagles battled in every match today, pushing the Bears in each line at their home courts. However, the Eagles just came up short with a few tiebreak losses.
"Our girls fought their hearts out. We didn't start the best with doubles, but I told them that I believed in all of them to win their singles matches," said head coach Nate Gangelhoff. "We came close. LR's women's team is very underrated and will make noise this year."
The day began with a quick 0-6 loss from Kerrigan Spiers and Hala Awad at third doubles; prior to today, the pair had not lost a match together. They are now 3-1 in 2026 as a doubles pair. Leah McBride and Mar Fraile took two games off LR at second doubles, but couldn't muster up enough to grab the victory. They fell 2-6.
Maria del Mar Sarda Marti and Kira Baacke were down 3-2 when the Bears won the doubles point, cutting their match short. They remain 2-1 in doubles play.
In singles, things got interesting. The Bears jumped out to a 3-0 lead with singles wins at the 3rd and 5th lines. Kerrigan Spiers lost at third singles 3-6, 4-6 and Leah McBride went down with a 4-6, 2-6 score. Spiers is now 1-1 in singles and McBride is 0-2.
Then the tide began to shift. Hala Awad pulled out a massive comeback win at 1st singles. The senior fell 0-6 in the first set, but battled back to take consecutive 6-3 victories and gave the Eagles their first point of the day. With her win, the Eagles were still down 1-3. Awad moves to 3-0 in her singles matches this season.
Kira Baacke grinded out a win at fourth singles to inch C-N closer. The sophomore won the first set 6-3, but then fell 6-7 (5-7) in the second frame. She bounced back better than ever, though, grabbing a dominant 6-1 win in the third to take the match. At this point, C-N was down 2-3.
Mar Fraile was next to join the fun. The Spaniard battled back from a 1-6 first set, pushing her opponent to a tiebreak in the 2nd frame that she won 7-6 (10-8). In the third and final set, Fraile defeated Disha Khandoji 6-4 to tie the overall team match at 3-3.
"Proud of the team fight and energy our girls had. I told them this is just the beginning for us, and we will achieve more. Now we rest and go back to work for what's ahead," said Gangelhoff.
Maria de Mar Sarda Marti was duking it out with Claudia Orsini at second singles. Mar Sarda Marti had defeated her in set one 7-6 (7-4), but then fell in set two 2-6. Not wanting to let the match slip away and with both teams watching on, the women were tied 6-6 in the third set, pushing to another tiebreaker. Mar Sarda Marti eventually would hfall 8-6 in the tiebreaker points, giving Lenoir-Rhyne their first conference victory of the season.
Carson-Newman is now 3-3 on the year and 0-1 in conference play. The Eagles have two days to regroup before they face #7 North Georgia in Dahlonega for the second edition of a three-match road trip. For updates, follow @CN_Eagles on X and Instagram, or check cneagles.com for full coverage.
