STATESBORO – The Georgia Southern women's tennis team dropped a tough match Friday to Florida Gulf Coast 3-4 on very cold afternoon at the Wallis Tennis Center.
 
Georgia Southern (4-2) and FGCU (3-4) fought to an Eagles stalemate in singles play to leave it all up to the doubles point. In a rare occurrence, the team played out the singles matches to start the day with wins by Paula Boixader, Nadja Meier and Charlotte van Diemen. Things did not go well for the Blue and White in doubles with FGCU winning the three and two positions to claim the victory.   
 
What head coach Sean McCaffrey said:
"Today was a real battle. I was particularly proud of the team as we dealt with the temperature and the wind. We definitely showed some really good stuff at times. FGCU is a really good team and all the credit goes to them. They showed a lot of energy and enthusiasm throughout the match and we just came up a bit short."
"I'm hoping we can continue to learn from challenging matches like today. We may not have won today, but we certainly continued to learn the things we need to work on in order to be ready for conference play."
 
Singles
1. Boixader, Paula (GS) def. ORNBERG, Maja (FGCU) 7-6, 6-2
2. Meier, Nadja (GS) def. KELLY, Sara (FGCU) 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
3. PEREZ, Sofia (FGCU) def. de Winter, Arianne (GS) 6-4, 6-4
4. van Diemen,Charlotte (GS) def. RETORTILLO, Alba (FGCU) 6-2, 6-3
5. FERDING, Ida (FGCU) def. Hijos, Paula (GS) 6-3, 6-4
6. RAMALLE, Lourdes (FGCU) def. Goines, Elizabeth (GS) 6-0, 7-5
Doubles
1. Boixader, Paula/de Winter, Arianne (GS) vs. ORNBERG, Maja/PEREZ, Sofia (FGCU) 3-4, unfinished
2. FISCH, Julia/KELLY, Sara (FGCU) def. Daniel, Hannah/Meier, Nadja (GS) 6-1
3. RAMALLE, Lourdes/RETORTILLO, Alba (FGCU) def. Hijos, Paula/van Diemen,Charlotte (GS) 6-0
 
Next Up
The Eagles host Presbyterian Saturday at 1:00 p.m.