Eagles Dominate at Weekend Tournament

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  • Graphic: Alexandra Tobia

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Macy Holloway

The Georgia Southern University women’s tennis team had a competitive weekend as it traveled to Alabama for matches against Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University and Auburn University.

On Friday during the match against AAMU, the Eagles handily dominated their competition and finished off the day with a score of 7-0. Junior Jordana Klein, freshman Daria Vasekina, sophomore Mary Phillips Smith and senior Caitlin Kitchen all won their matches with sets of either 6-0, 6-0 or 6-0, 6-1, unwilling to let their competition get ahead even once.

The doubles matches on Friday didn’t go any differently, with sophomore Stephanie Woods and partner freshman Giulia Riepe defeating AAMU freshman Orianna Rodriguez and junior Jessica Taylor 6-0. To continue the winning streak was an unrelenting doubles pair of senior Paola Garrido and sophomore McKinsey Fiveash who defeated their opponents, AAMU sophomore Khyana Price and Leslie Ekpe, with a final score of 6-0.

On Saturday GSU went head-to-head with ASU. While the competition was more intense, the Eagles were still persistent in their strive for victory, by the end of the day they had the final tally at GSU 7 – ASU 0.

When it came down to doubles, GSU’s Garrido and Smith had one of the more interesting matches against ASU sophomore Arantxia Wijngaarde and junior Nathalie Lorenco, being a bit more evenly paired their match ended with a total score of 8-5, GSU with the win.

The pairs of Woods and Riepe and Klein and Kitchen were also able to tack on wins Saturday when they each defeated their doubles ASU opponents 8-3. Along with these steady doubles defeats, each GSU singles player struck down their opponents and the Eagles went 6-0 overall in singles.

On Sunday when the Eagles squared off against the Auburn Tigers, the level of play was much higher in comparison to their earlier matches. The final tally of the day was AU 7, GSU 0.

One of the more intense singles matches was between Klein and AU sophomore Paula de Man, with a with a total score of 7-5, 6-4, Klein wasn’t going down without a fight, she definitely had one of the closest matches of the day. Smith was also unrelenting in her fight when she went head to head against AU freshman Lindsey Whitehead, losing the first set 6-2, winning the second 3-6, and ultimately ending the match 1-0, (10-5).

All three doubles matches were lost as well for the Eagles. So while GSU was able to remain strong early in the weekend, they were unfortunately unable to carry the win streak into Sunday.

On the weekend of Feb. 14, the Eagles will travel to Florida to face-off against the University of Central Florida and Bethune-Cookman University.