Women?s Tennis Closes Out Regular Season
4/8/2011 1:04:00 AM | Women's Tennis
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Women's Tennis team (8-9, 2-6 SoCon) concludes its regular season this weekend, playing host to UNC Greensboro (11-4, 6-0 SoCon) before traveling to Western Carolina (2-11, 1-6 SoCon). The Eagles celebrate Senior Day Friday versus the Spartans at 2:30 p.m. and then travel to Cullowhee, N.C., Sunday for a noon matchup against the Catamounts to close out the regular season.
Georgia Southern will honor seniors Ali Beavers (Kingsport, Tenn.), Ashley Hungerford (Clearwater, Fla.) and Melanie Rolle (Gainesville, Fla.) for their contributions to the program in a pre-match ceremony. All three have guided the Eagles this season with Beavers holding an 11-3 record at No. 2 singles and Hungerford winning seven matches at the No. 5 spot. Rolle has won matches throughout the lineup at the No.1, No. 3 and No. 4 positions.
Georgia Southern trails UNC Greensboro 4-9 in the all-time series. The Eagles defeated the Spartans, 4-3, at home last year to snap a six-match losing streak versus UNCG that dated back to 2003. The victory over the Spartans, who were ranked 66th in the nation at the time, was the first win over a ranked opponent in Head Coach Amy Bonner's career. The Eagles are a perfect 22-0 all-time against Western Carolina dating back to 1992. Last season, GSU won 7-0 at home to preserve the undefeated streak against the Catamounts.
Senior Ali Beavers (Kingsport, Tenn.) leads Georgia Southern with 12 total wins in singles play including five conference victories and wins in eight of her last 10 matches. In doubles play, Paola Garrido (Vigo, Spain) and Caitlin Kitchen (Kennesaw, Ga.) are 3-1 at the top of the lineup during SoCon play.
UNC Greensboro comes into Friday's match tied with Charleston for first place in the SoCon. The Spartans' Niltooli Wilkins carries a 13-2 dual-match record at the No. 1 seed in singles play. At No. 1 doubles, Stephanie MacFarlane and Alex Whitehead have an 11-2 dual record.
Western Carolina is on a five-match losing streak. Carolina Lainez leads the Catamounts on the singles side with seven victories. Lainez and Ainhoa Iglesias Diaz have posted six of their seven wins at the number-one seed in doubles.
The Eagles will take a week off as the team prepares for the Southern Conference Tournament. The SoCon Tournament begins Wednesday, April 20th, in Chattanooga, Tenn., at the Champions Club.
Fans can follow Eagle Women's Tennis at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/wtennis and receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics or twitter.com/GSAthletics. Scores of matches are posted at twitter.com/GSScores.
