Women's Tennis | 4/12/2018 7:56:00 PM

JACKSONVILLE - Despite an epic battle in doubles play to take the lead, North Florida women's tennis fell to FGCU in singles as the Eagles won, 4-3, on Thursday afternoon at the UNF Tennis Complex.

QUICK HITS
- The Ospreys move to 15-7 and 5-1 in conference play for the second straight season. UNF will be the No. 2 seed in the upcoming tournament hosted by the Ospreys beginning on April 20.
- After a quick loss in the No. 3 doubles position, UNF bounced back from being behind in both the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.
- In the No. 2 spot, Lucia Montano and Valentina Mariotto were down 4-5 before coming back to win 7-5 to even the score to 1-1.
- With eyes on the No. 1 court, Luise Intert and Rafaela Gomez fought against the Eagles' top pair of Maja Ornberg and Julia Ascua and came back from behind for a 7-6 (8) win for the Ospreys 1-0 lead.
- Montano made quick work of Madison Gallegos in the No. 3 singles match for the 2-0 lead.
- Ascua grabbed the first singles point for the Eagles before Intert made it a 3-1 match with her, 6-1, 6-2 victory in the No. 4 spot.
- FGCU (9-7, 5-0 ASUN) then went on to win in the No. 6 and No. 1 matches to even the score before Sofia Perez won her third set to clinch the match and give the Eagles the No. 1 spot for the tournament.

COBRA'S CORNER
"First of all - I want to thank every single person that came out to support use today. We are sorry that we couldn't come out with the win, but each person's presence was huge! Secondly, hats off to FGCU for walking away with the win. We didn't play great doubles and were still able to pull a great comeback and get the point. Honestly in singles, we took care of business right away in two courts and those were the courts we won.

"For the other courts that we lost, we were not by any means the weaker player - we simply didn't compete as well and FGCU wanted it more in those spots. As heartbreaking as it was to lose after being up, we must let it go and move on. It is key for us to come ready for every practice and I know we will bounce back in the tournament." - Head Coach Mariana Cobra.

FULL RESULTS
1. ORNBERG, Maja (FGCU) def. Rafaela Gomez (UNF) 6-3, 6-4
2. ASCUA, Julia (FGCU) def. Eva Nyikos (UNF) 6-3, 7-5
3. Lucia Montano (UNF) def. GALLEGOS, Madison (FGCU) 6-4, 6-1
4. Luise Intert (UNF) def. FALCETO FONT, Laura (FGCU) 6-1, 6-2
5. PEREZ, Sofia (FGCU) def. Valentina Mariotto (UNF) 1-6, 6-1, 6-2
6. FORSTER, Bridget (FGCU) def. Florencia Rossi (UNF) 6-4, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. Rafaela Gomez/Luise Intert (UNF) def. ORNBERG, Maja/ASCUA, Julia (FGCU) 7-6 (10-8)
2. Lucia Montano/Eva Nyikos (UNF) def. CURTIS, Julianna/FALCETO FONT, Laura (FGCU) 7-5
3. GALLEGOS, Madison/VILLAR, Patricia (FGCU) def. Valentina Mariotto/Florencia Rossi (UNF) 6-1

UP NEXT
North Florida turns its attention to the ASUN Tournament beginning on April 20 at the UNF Tennis Complex. UNF will be the No. 2 seed and await its opponent in the semifinals.