University of North Florida
GEORGIA SOUTHERN
2007 opens with a win
1/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Jan. 20, 2007
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida women's tennis team opened its 2007 season with a 5-2 win over Georgia Southern on Saturday at the UNF Tennis Complex.
The Lady Ospreys took control early with a hard-fought win in doubles play and then captured four of the first five singles points to clinch the match victory in the season opener for both teams.
Georgia Southern applied pressure early in the match by capturing No. 1 doubles when Kristi Kegerreis and Heather Reynolds knocked off UNF's Florencia Torres and Catalina Castillo, 8-3. The Lady Ospreys rallied with an easy win at No. 3 doubles when Ina Durcakova and Carolina de Melo upended GSU's Molly Maddox and Jessica Matlosz, 8-4.
From there, UNF's Vanessa Sanchez and Robin Rogers fought off two breaks to rally for a 9-7 win at No. 2 doubles and give the Lady Ospreys the doubles point and a 1-0 match lead.
In singles play, wins from Sanchez (6-4, 6- 2) at the No. 1 position, Castillo (6-3, 6-1) at No. 3, de Melo at No. 6 (6-4, 6-2) and Durcakova at No. 5 (7-5, 6-4) clinched the victory for UNF.
Torres fell at No. 2 singles (6-3, 6-1) and Rogers at the No. 5 position (0-6, 6-2, 6-2) to round out the match.
The Lady Ospreys played without one of their top players - Natalia Sanchez - who was held out as a disciplinary measure. Her absence created a large void in the team's lineup, according to UNF head coach Igal Buberman, but the second-year head coach said he was proud of his team's effort in getting the season started with a win.
"We started very shaky," Buberman said. "Not having Natalia in singles complicated things a little, but we didn't play beautiful tennis regardless. I thought we competed well in doubles and did what we needed to do in order to win the match. For the first match of the season, it was a good starting point. It was a nice win."
The Lady Ospreys return to action next week when they travel to El Paso next weekend for three matches. UNF faces Lamar on Friday, Texas- Pan American on Saturday and Texas-El Paso on Sunday.
