Eagles Top Hornets 6-1 In Spring Season Debut

Sunday, January 25

Statesboro, GA

12 pm

Georgia Southern University

Alabama State

1/25/2015 3:35:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Erika Brennan

Statesboro, Ga. – The Eagles got their spring season underway Sunday at the Wallis Tennis Center as they battled the visiting Alabama State Hornets to a 6-1 decision. The Eagles, now 1-0, got the crucial doubles point before cruising to a 5-1 advantage in singles.

"We came out aggressive which was the message all week," said Head Coach Michele Stanford. "The girls worked their strategies and patterns really well and they stayed focused and really took the points by being aggressive."

The No. 3 doubles tandem of Jordana Klein and Giulia Riepe as they defeated Matabe Akoachere and Brianna Fairley 6-0 and the No. 2 doubles pair of Francisca Norregaard and Daria Vasekina clinched the doubles point when they took down Brankica Orlovic and Irina Cvijovia 6-1.

At No. 1 doubles, Mary Phillips Smith and Anne Kurzweil fell to Marine Cartier and Arantxia Wijinhaarde 6-7, but by winning 2 of the 3 doubles matches, the Eagles went in to singles completion up 1-0 over the visiting Hornets.

The lone senior, Klein, made easy work of Wijnhaarde 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1 singles to earn the 2nd point of the day for the Eagles

"The first match of the season, there are always some nerves," commented senior Jordana Klein. "I'm the only senior, and because it's my last season, I really wanted to get a win and set the tone for our entire team to get the win. We are a really close team this year, and Coach [Stanford] is doing a really great job. We're one family and we all have the same goals in mind for what we want our season to be."

At No. 5 singles, Riepe defeated Akoachere 6-2, 6-1 to tilt the match 3-0 in favor of the Eagles.

It was Norregaard at No. 6 singles who clinched the match for the Eagles when she triumphed over Fairley 6-3, 6-1. At No. 3 singles, Kurzweil provided another point as she defeated Cvijovic 6-1, 6-4 to move the match to 5-0.

At No. 4 singles, Vasekina defeated Orlovic 3-6, 6-1 (10-5) to put the Eagles ahead 6-0. Smith fell to Cartier 1-6, 5-7 at No. 2 singles.

"In our team circle we talked about a few things that each of the girls can improve on for next week, and they each set an individual focus goal for the week. We'll start making that goal the priority for each girl during their individual sessions this week as we look ahead to next weekend," concluded Stanford.

The Eagles return to competition Saturday January 31 when they take on the Mercer Bears at 12 p.m. from the Wallis Tennis Center.

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