Lady Eagles Down Bethune-Cookman, 6-1
2/14/2009 5:06:00 AM | Women's Tennis
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ? The Georgia Southern women's tennis team rebounded from a road defeat yesterday with a 6-1 stomping of Bethune-Cookman Saturday morning (Feb. 14). The doubles point and five singles victories pushed the Lady Eagles to a 4-3 overall record this season, while the Wildcats dropped to 0-2.
The teams opened the contest playing a tight doubles point with the clinching match coming down to the last court. Georgia Southern notched the doubles point as the three matches finished in numerical order. Ali Beavers and Kristi Kegerreis teamed up at the one seed to take on the Wildcat duo of Monica Musilova and Eva Hankova. The Eagle tandem crushed the Wildcats with a decisive 8-1 mark. But Bethune-Cookman bounced right back taking the second doubles match at the two seed. Katarina Szaboova and Stacey Lopez paired up to defeat Melanie Rolle and Christine Caforio, 8-6, leaving the decision of the doubles point to the three seed where Shea Huxtable and Jessica Fuller found themselves on serve against Valecia Kendrick and Andrea Paez. The Eagle pair broke the Wildcat duo to take their match, 8-6, and give the Lady Eagles a 1-0 advantage heading into singles action.
Georgia Southern carried the intensity of doubles competition over to singles play, clinching the match with the first three contests off the court. Rolle finished her match first with a straight set 6-2, 6-1 decision over Hankova at the three seed, followed by Emma Knight downing Ward, 6-1, 6-3, at the six seed, giving the Lady Eagles a 3-0 lead. Fuller handled Lopez at the four position 6-3, 6-4, to clinch the match, 4-0, for Georgia Southern.
With the match decision already set, the Lady Eagles added two more singles victories to the board. Caforio upended Kendrick from the five seed, 7-5, 6-4, moments before Bethune-Cookman earned its lone point of the morning. Szaboova grabbed a victory over Kegerreis at the one seed in a match tiebreaker. Kegerreis dropped the first set in a tiebreak, 7-6(7), but bounced right back to sweep Szaboova 6-0 in the second set to draw the match into a tiebreak. Kegerreis pushed Szaboova, but fell 10-7.
Maddox closed out the morning for Georgia Southern at the two position conquering Musilova. Maddox came back from being down 5-2 to take the first set 7-5, but dropped the second set, 7-5. Maddox prevailed in the match tiebreaker, 10-5, finalizing the match score at 6-1.
“The score was a lot closer than it appears with a 6-1 defeat,” said head coach Amy Bonner. “I'm very proud of the team to come back after a tough loss to UCF and pull out a win today.”
Georgia Southern is back in action when they travel to Elon to open Southern Conference play. First serve at Elon is slated for 11 a.m. on Saturday, February 21.
Georgia Southern 6, Bethune-Cookman 1
Doubles:
1. Kristi Kegerreis/Ali Beavers (GSU) d. Monica Musilova/Eva Hankova (BCU) 8-1
2. Katarina Szaboova/Stacey Lopez (BCU) d. Melanie Rolle/Christine Caforio (GSU) 8-6
3. Shea Huxtable/Jessica Fuller (GSU) d. Valecia Kendrick/Andrea Paez (BCU) 8-6 *
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3
*Clinched the doubles point
Singles:
1. Katerina Szaboova (BCU) d. Kristi Kegerreis (GSU) 7-6(8), 0-6, 10-7
2. Molly Maddox (GSU) d. Monica Musilova (BCU) 7-5, 5-7, 10-5
3. Melanie Rolle (GSU) d. Eva Hankova (BCU) 6-2, 6-1
4. Jessica Fuller (GSU) d. Stacey Lopez (BCU) 6-3, 6-4 *
5. Christine Caforio (GSU) d. Valecia Kendrick (BCU) 7-5. 6-4
6. Emma Knight (GSU) d. Jeneice Ward (BCU) 6-1, 6-3
Order of finish: 3, 6, 4, 5, 1, 2
*Clinched the match
