STATESBORO, Ga. – The Georgia Southern women's tennis team completed the upset of Louisiana Thursday morning at the Peachtree City Tennis Center. The Eagles defeated the Cajuns 4-2 to advance to the second round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The Eagles will have the rest of the day off before taking on No. 1 seed Troy, Friday at 8:00 a.m.

"After dropping the doubles point today I was really impressed with how the women played with their backs against the wall," Head Coach Sean McCaffrey said. "We actually had a bit of a slow start in singles with Ari, Paula and Mila, although winning their matches, went down a break of serve or more in their first sets. A few adjustments here and there in mid first sets, along with playing inspired Eagle Tennis, allowed us to fight another day. Being able to pick up the four points without dropping a set at those positions just shows how much fight the ladies are ready to demonstrate. We know we can fight with any team in the conference in singles, we just need to get our stuff together for the start of the match in regards to doubles. We will enjoy this for a little while today and get our heads ready for a battle with Troy tomorrow."

The Blue and White got off to a slow start in doubles play dropping the doubles point to the Ragin' Cajuns 1-0. In singles play it was a whole different story. Arianne de Winter leveled the scoring at one all, after defeating Kelly Drew 6-2, 6-4 in straight sets. Emilia Bujan followed closely behind to give the Eagles their first lead of the morning. Bujan defeated Floriane Picaut 6-3, 7-5 in straight sets to boost the momentum towards the Eagles.

Paula Boixader had her first taste of Sun Belt Conference Tournament action defeating Abby Johnson to push the Eagles to a 3-1 lead. Her 6-4, 6-2 victory came after she fell behind early in the first set, but broke serve and took control of the match to finish. Louisiana would get a point back on court five, but Mila Hartig had already taken control of the second set. Hartig won her first set 7-6 in a tiebreaker and was up 4-0 in the second set shortly after Paula had finished hers.

The Eagles will have the rest of the day off to rest and recover, before having another early wakeup call tomorrow. The Blue and White will take on No. 1 seed Troy at 8:00 a.m. Friday morning.
 
SINGLES
De Winter def. Drew (LA) 6-2, 6-4
Bujan def. Picaut (LA) 6-3, 7-5
Monsey def. Radovanovic (LA) DNF
Boixader def. Johnson (LA) 6-4, 6-2
Radriguez Garcia (LA) def. Van Diemen 6-1, 6-4
Hartig def. Forshag (LA) 7-6, 6-0
 
DOUBLES
Picaut/Radovanovic (LA) def. Bujan/Monsey 6-2
Drew/Rodriguez Garcia (LA) def. De Winter/Boixader 6-4
Truscott/Van Diemen def. Johnson/Forshag (LA) DNF

NEXT UP
The Eagles will have another early morning Friday, as they take on the No. 1 seed Troy Trojans at 8:00 a.m.