PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – In a match that saw the final three matches come down to third set, the top-seeded UT Arlington women's tennis team couldn't top second-seeded Georgia Southern as the Eagles won 4-2 at the Peachtree City Tennis Center on Saturday afternoon in the Sun Belt Conference semifinals.
Georgia Southern jumped out with a quick doubles victory on court one. With the match tied 2-2,
Nanaka Takeuchi and
Liz Chileno dropped four straight sets as the Golden Eagles captured No. 1 doubles 6-2.
Carla Pons and
Almudena Boza evened the playing field, taking No. 3 doubles by the same 6-2 score. Boza and Pons never trailed in the match. The tandem won 80 percent of their first serves, compared to just 59 percent of Georgia Southern.
Leading by 3-0 early on at No. 2,
Bruna Casasampere and
Lucia Natal saw their lead slip as the Golden Eagles fought back to tie the match at 5-5 before overtaking the Mavericks and winning the match 7-5. Georgia Southern won the last four games of the match to give the Golden Eagles the 1-0 doubles advantage.
Liz Chileno was the first to finish her singles match, taking No. 2 6-2, 6-2 over Paula Boixader to tie the match at one.
Almudena Boza quickly followed with a straight set of her own. Boza won No. 6 over Elizabeth Goines 6-1, 6-3 to put the Mavericks up 2-1, but the lead would be short lived.
The Golden Eagles immediately followed with their first singles win, coming at No. 1 over
Momoka Horiguchi to even the match at two. Nadja Meier took down Horiguchi 7-5, 6-1.
Georgia Southern kept their momentum going at No. 3 and No. 4 singles. After falling 6-2 in set one,
Polina Akimova battled back and took set three to force a decisive set three. At one point leading the third set 4-3, Sophie Wagemaker took the next three games to win the set and put the Golden Eagles one point away from victory.
At No. 4, Pons looked to be in control after taking set one 6-4 over Mila Hartig. Hartig, however, had other plans. She took the second set 6-3 before cruising to a set three win 6-0 and getting the match deciding point for Georgia Southern.
The loss brings an end to the season for the Mavericks, but not after an impressive 18-4 season, regular season Sun Belt Conference championship, and semifinal appearance in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
