Women’s tennis prepares for championship
April 15, 2014
Tomorrow the Eagles will head to Chattanooga, Tenn., to compete in the 2014 Women’s Tennis Southern Conference Championship.
Georgia Southern University at No. 6 will begin its charge up against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, holding a lofty standing of No. 3, on Thursday, at 3 p.m. The team will begin play on the second day of the tournament in the quarterfinals coinciding with three other matches
The preceding match between GSU and UTC took place in Chattanooga on March 8 and concluded with a prompt 7-0 victory for the Mocs. Not a single victory was earned by the Eagles that day, and each match was ended hastily by the dominant Mocs. UTC is 7-2 in conference play going into the Championship and will assuredly be a hard team to go up against first round.
This is, in fact, a single elimination tournament so the Eagles will have to bring their A-game if they want any chance of getting through that first vigorous match. UTC has lost a mere four games this entire season, while GSU has 10 losses this season.
The winner of the Appalachian State University/Western Carolina University matchup in the first round on Wednesday will continue on to face off against Samford University on Thursday, March 5. The team that arises victorious in this game will advance to the semifinals and play the champ of the GSU/UTC match.
While GSU does hold a No. 6 standing, continuously hovering over four other teams, the gap between the No. 3 and No. 6 spots is prominent.
GSU has improved its ranking since last year when the team was in the No. 7 spot going into the tournament. The Eagles were able to glide through the first round defeating No. 10 Wofford College 4-2. However, in the second round GSU was swiftly brought down by a then-No. 2 Elon Universtiy 4-0. EU went on to crush Furman University and compete for the title when it fell short against the College of Charleston.
It seems much has changed since last season as EU holds a No. 4 standing, and GSU has even been able to knock ASU down a peg in view of last year. Hopefully for the Eagles the yearly adjustments will continue and they can deliver enough force to take home the championship.
GSU is going into the tournament with a 4-5 conference record and a 10-10 regular season record. The last match of the tournament will take place on Saturday, April 19, at 2 p.m.