Samford and ETSU Advance To Women's Tennis Final

ETSU 4, Chattanooga 2

CLEMSON, S.C. - Less than one month ago, Chattanooga rallied from a 3-1 deficit to edge ETSU, 4-3, to hand the Buccaneers their only home setback of the season. Saturday, the Bucs avenged that loss by besting UTC, 4-2, to advance to the title match of the Southern Conference Women's Tennis Championship.

The third-seeded Bucs (15-5), winners of five consecutive matches, started Saturday's semifinal match strongly, capturing the doubles point with wins at the top two spots.

No. 2 UTC took a 1-0 lead in doubles play; however, ETSU responded, with Regina Nychytailova and Jessica Brumit winning, 8-5, at No. 2 to draw the doubles margin even.

Lyn Yee Choo and Ana Gerbasi then clinched the doubles point for the Bucs with an 8-6 victory at the top spot.

The Bucs extended their match lead to 2-0 as Nychytailova cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 2 Singles.

UTC's  No. 1 player, Kayla Jones, then defeated Choo, 6-0, 6-4, to cut the Mocs' (18-4) deficit to 2-1.

Freshman Ioanna Markesini gave the Bucs a 3-1 lead by pulling out a three-set win at No. 4 Singles, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.

It was then that the match took an turn eerily similar to the Mocs' regular-season comeback versus ETSU.

With UTC trailing, 3-1, the Mocs' Kaylene Chadwell outlasted Gerbasi in a second-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-4), to extend the match, keeping UTC's hopes alive.

However, Brumit, the Bucs' captain and lone senior, then rose to the occasion, defeating Claire Mulyadi, 7-5, 6-3, at No. 5 Singles to seal the 4-2 win for ETSU.

In UTC's regular-season win over ETSU, Brumit suffered a heartbreaking, three-set loss in the final match of the day, allowing UTC to take the 4-3 victory.

The Bucs have won nine of their last 11 matches.


Samford 4, Furman 3

GREENVILLE, S.C. – With the score tied at 3-all, Savannah Wood defeated freshman Alejandra Gil, 6-2, 6-0, at flight six singles as top-seeded Samford topped No. 4 Furman, 4-3,  Saturday in the semifinals of  the 2015 Southern Conference Championships at the Mickel Tennis Center in Greenville, S.C.

The Bulldogs won two doubles matches to claim the opening point.  Stephanie N’tcha and Carita Moolman downed senior Alex Moreno-Kaste and sophomore Ansley Speaks, 8-3, at flight one, and Yasmeen Ebada and Jessica Northcutt posted an 8-0 victory over sophomore Blair Martin and freshman Alejandra Gil, 8-0, at number two.  The flight three match was unfinished.

In singles play, Speaks tied the match with a 6-2, 6-3 win versus Ebada at flight two, but Northcutt came from behind to put Samford back on top, 2-1, with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Martin at number three. Sophomore Karlee Bryde tied the match, beating Moolman, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 in a hard-found flight four contest, then Moreno-Kaste topped N’tcha, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, at number one to give Furman a 3-2 advantage.  Iva Parapunova came from behind to beat sophomore Harper Caswell, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, at flight five to tie the score at 3-3 and set up the decisive flight six match.