GSU aces KSU tournament

Eric Wiley

This past weekend, the Georgia Southern University Eagles women’s tennis team traveled to Kennesaw State University for their second tournament this fall to participate in The Kennesaw Fall Classic.

It was domination across the board for the Eagles. Head coach Amy Bonner believed the girls gained a lot from the tournament and hopes it gives them momentum for their upcoming matches.

“We had a great weekend competing at the KSU fall classic. I was proud of the way the team competed in both singles and doubles play,” Bonner said.

The Eagles had a great combined team effort in both singles and doubles flights as they were able to win every flight and senior Natalie Maffett enjoyed the team’s success and the fact that the team was able to play well after the month long practice without action.

“I love the way the team came together and won all flights,” Maffett said. “We had been practicing for a month. It was nice to see us play well.”

Maffett had a great individual showing in the tournament by winning all of her singles matches in straight sets and teaming with sophomore Jordana Klein to win each of their doubles matches.

Junior Paola Garrido won the black draw singles and paired with freshman Stephanie Woods to win the black draw doubles as the GSU’s women’s tennis team completed a successful two days at the Kennesaw Fall Classic at the Fair Oaks Tennis Center in Marietta.

Garrido defeated Kennesaw State’s Alex Apostu 6-4, 6-1 to win the East Flight Championship match. The junior opened the match on Friday with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Western Carolina University’s Karen Jimenez and advanced to the finals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Jana Hueckingaus of KSU.

“It was great to see Paola (Garrido) and Stephi (Woods) have such a solid performance in singles and then come together as a doubles team and win their flight. We have a week to prepare for our next tournament, but then hopefully we can take some of the confidence we gained at the KSU tournament to give us some momentum for our final tournament,” Bonner said.

Garrido and Woods opened doubles play on Friday with an 8-2 win over Florida A&M University’s Bethany Holt and Symons Townsend. The duo reached the finals with an 8-4 win over WCU’s Stacia Kissell and Sara Ruiz and won the black draw with a tough 8-5 decision over KSU’s Hueckinghaus and Tamara Plocher.

The team will travel this Friday through Sunday, Nov. 2 through the fourth to participate at the Augusta Challenge hosted by Virginia Tech University at Rae’s Creek Club in Augusta. Play begins on Friday at 4 p.m. with an opening round of doubles.