March 20, 2007

Complete Results

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The University of North Florida women's tennis team lost 5- 2 to Troy on Tuesday afternoon at the UNF Tennis Complex.

The loss snapped a four-match winning streak by the Lady Ospreys (13-4) and marked the team's third loss at home in its last five matches. Tuesday's match was the team's final competition at the UNF Tennis Complex this season.

"This was a very disappointing loss for us," UNF head coach Igal Buberman said. "It was our last home match, and we were saying goodbye to two of our seniors (Florencia Torres and Catalina Castillo). We knew coming into the match that there was no room for hesitation, but we felt the pressure and did not deal with it as well as we should have. It was very gratifying to have our both seniors playing at the top of the lineup and competing so well at such a good level."

Troy (8-4) has been ranked as high as 71st nationally this season but fell out of the national rankings in the past week after a pair of losses to Clemson and South Carolina. The Lady Trojans wasted no time in taking control on Tuesday -- sweeping doubles play to take a 1-0 lead.

In singles play, UNF managed wins from Florencia Torres at the No. 2 position and Carolina de Melo at the No. 6 position, but those victories weren't enough to overcome Troy's ability to win close matches. Torres' win came against a player that had played No. 1 singles for the Trojans the past two years and who was ranked 95th nationally in 2006.

Troy managed three hard-fought wins at the Nos. 1, 3 and 5 matches -- all three going three sets.

Annabelle Bares recovered from a one-set deficit to upended UNF's Catalina Castillo (5-7, 6-3, 6-4) at the No. 1 position. Claudia Strauss then knocked off UNF's Vanessa Sanchez (6-1, 5-7, 6-2) at No. 3, and Stephanie Vieria defeated UNF's Natalia Sanchez (6- 2, 1-6, 6-2) at the No. 5 spot.

"We are still learning from our mistakes and shortcomings and trying to correct them as the matches come along," Buberman said. "We need to do a better job at taking our chances, and we know that there is a couple more to come this weekend."

UNF returns to action on Saturday when it travels to Tampa to take on Denver. Match time is set for 2 p.m.