No. 33 South Carolina Outlasts #WTEN

Friday, February 21

Columbia, SC

5:30 p.m.

University of North Florida

South Carolina

Photo by: Todd Drexler

2/21/2014 10:29:00 PM | Women's Tennis

By: Bridgette Gale, North Florida Athletics

COLUMBIA, S.C.—The University of North Florida women's team was swept 7-0 by No. 33 South Carolina on Friday night at the Carolina Tennis Center.

"Today was a good learning lesson for us," said head coach Audra Cohen. "We were very scrappy and competed well, but against the better teams that is not enough. We need to focus on developing weapons and being brave enough to use them in big moments."

Marina Cunningham and Taylor Hollander got an 8-6 victory over Meghan Blevins and Caroline Dailey at No. 3 doubles. However, South Carolina fought back and clinched the doubles points with wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 spot. At No. 1 doubles, Elixane Lechemia and Dominika Kanakova defeated Rebeca Pereira and Michelle Valdez 8-3. Brigit Folland and Katerina Popova downed Simona Weymar and Esther Zuniga 8-5 at the No. 3 position.

Although the Ospreys fell at all six singles spots, Hollander took Dailey to a tiebreaker in lieu of a third-set. Hollander won the first-set 6-4, but Dailey claimed the second 6-3 forcing a super tiebreaker. Dailey clinched the tiebreaker 10-4.

The Gamecocks accumulated straight-set wins at the No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5 spots to clinch the victory. No. 112 Folland had a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Zuniga at No. 2 singles. At the No. 4 spot, Blevins got a 6-3, 6-0 win over Pereira. Ximena Siles Luna defeated Michelle Valdez 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 5 position.

The Ospreys conclude their road-trip at South Carolina State tomorrow at the Bulldog Tennis Courts at Noon.

Match Results
#33 South Carolina 7, North Florida 0

Singles
1. Elixane Lechemia, USC, def. Simona Weymar, UNF, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1
2. #112 Brigit Folland, USC, def. Esther Zuniga, UNF, 6-3, 6-0
3. #T-69 Katerina Popova, USC, def. Marina Cunningham, UNF, 6-4, 6-1
4. Meghan Blevins, USC, def. Rebeca Pereira, UNF, 6-3, 6-0
5. Ximena Siles Luna, USC, def. Michelle Valdez, UNF, 6-1, 6-2
6. Caroline Dailey, USC, def. Taylor Hollander, UNF, 4-6, 6-3, (10-4)

Doubles
1. Dominika Kanakova/Lechemia, USC, def. Pereira/Valdez, UNF, 8-3
2. Folland/Popova, USC, def. Weymar/Zuniga, UNF, 8-5
3. Cunningham/Hollander, UNF, def. Blevins/Dailey, USC, 8-6

Doubles Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles Order of Finish: 4, 2, 5, 3, 1, 6