The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's tennis team dropped its first home match of the season against UABt Saturday at The McCallie School. UTC (0-2) was able to gain wins at No.1 doubles and No.3 singles, but fell 4-1 in the match.
The duo of Kayla Jones and Kelsey Coots got the 6-3 win at the No.1 doubles spot over UAB's Pardis Kianoush and Elaine Simon, while the Blazers secured the two other doubles wins at No.2 and No.3 to go up 1-0 in the match.
"Kayla and Kelsey are a great team of two seniors that are great doubles players," head coach Jeff Clark said.
"They got off to a slow start but they have the confidence that if they can play their game, they can be there in the end, so they made a nice turnaround."
Sophomore Samantha Caswell showed a strong performance in singles competition,as she put UTC on the board with a 6-3, 6-1 win over UAB's McKenna Root.
"Samantha played a really solid match against a very good player," Clark said. "Her opponent has had some really good results this year. She just found her rhythm in the middle of the first set, didn't panic and it was nice to see her really run away with that match. She won nine out of the last 12 games, so that was a good effort."
The Mocs saw first-set tiebreakers in the No.1, No. 2 and No.3 singles, but dropped three out of four matches with two unfinished.
"I like the fact that we have to play tomorrow," Clark said. "We have another good opponent in an in-state rival with Tennessee coming up and we're very excited to play tomorrow. We've got to turn the page very quickly and we can come back stronger."
The Mocs return to McCallie tomorrow, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m. (E.S.T.) for a big match against Tennessee. A link for live scoring is on the women's tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com.
University of Alabama at Birmingham 4, Chattanooga 1
Jan. 30, 2016 at Chattanooga, Tenn. (The McCallie School)
Doubles competition
1. Kayla Jones/Kelsey Coots (UTC) def. Pardis Kianoush/Elaine Simon (UAB) 6-3
2. Reghan Lynch/Elaine Simon (UAB) def. Samantha Caswell/Rachele Gazzola (UTC) 6-4
3. McKenna Root/Catherine Ragon (UAB) def. Katie Polk/Sydney Patton (UTC) 6-2
Singles competition
1. Pardis Kianoush def. Kayla Jones 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, unfinished
2. Elaine Simon (UAB) def. Kelsey Coots (UTC) 7-6 (11-9), 0-6, 1-0 unfinished
3. Samantha Caswell (UTC) def. McKenna Root (UAB) 6-3, 6-1
4. Catherine Ragon (UAB) def. Alison Storie (UTC) 6-1, 6-1
5. Sophie Dodds (UAB) def. Rachele Gazzola (UTC) 6-2, 6-3
6. Gabrielle Paul (UAB) def. Sydney Patton (UTC) 7-6 (8-6), 6-4
The UTC men's tennis team scored a big 4-3 win at Austin Peay Saturday. The Mocs evened their season record at 1-1 while snapping a five-match losing streak to the Governors.
Battling cramps and a tough opponent, freshman Pablo Llebeili gutted out a third-set tiebreaker in the deciding match to give the Mocs the win.
"In was really proud of our team today," state head coach Carlos Garcia. "This was a great early season comeback that we needed against a quality in-state rival."
UTC was up early, leading 5-2 at No. 2 doubles and No. 3 doubles. APSU took the No. 1 match, and Chattanooga senior Luke Saunders and junior Lucas Plesky closed out the win at No. 2.
The Governors battled back at No. 3, forcing a tiebreaker. Austin Peay went on to win the breaker and take the 1-0 lead with the doubles point.
Senior Nick Wingord tied the match with a straight sets win at No. 3. Saunders put the Mocs in the lead with his (7-5, 6-4) win over Almantas Ozelis at No. 4. APSU tied it at 2-2 with a win at No. 1 and went ahead with a victory at No. 6.
That left Llebeili on the court at No. 5, up 5-3 in the third. That's when the cramps set in. He needed a couple of injury timeouts just to stay upright in the final set.
"I was two seconds away from calling a default, but Pablo was able to get a second-wind and hang on until the tiebreaker," stated Garcia.
Llebeili was down 4-3 in the extra frame, but closed out Chad Woodham 7-5 in the breaker to take the match.
UTC is back on the courts next week when it hosts a rescheduled match against Tennessee Wesleyan. The match is set for Thursday, Feb. 4, at 2:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) at the Champions Club. Check the men's tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com for a link to live scoring.
Chattanooga 4, Austin Peay 3
Jan 30, 2016 at Clarksville, Tenn. (Governors Tennis Center)
Doubles competition
1. Jumonville, Aaron/Mitchell, James (APSU) def. Pablo Llebeili/John Peacey (UTC) 6-2
2. Luke Saunders/Lucas Plesky (UTC) def. Montenegro, Manuel/Ozelis, Almantas (APSU) 6-2
3. Drobysh, Aleh/Kartsonis, Alex (APSU) def. Michael Birnbaum/Nick Wingord (UTC) 7-6 (7-5)
Singles competition
1. Jumonville, Aaron (APSU) def. John Peacey (UTC) 6-4, 6-2
2. Lucas Plesky (UTC) def. Montenegro, Manuel (APSU) 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-4
3. Nick Wingord (UTC) def. Drobysh, Aleh (APSU) 6-1, 6-4
4. Luke Saunders (UTC) def. Ozelis, Almantas (APSU) 7-5, 6-4
5. Pablo Llebeili (UTC) def. Woodham, Chad (APSU) 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5)
6. Mitchell, James (APSU) def. Paul LaHue (UTC) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2