Lady Braves Fall To Georgia Southwestern

AMERICUS, Ga. – UNCP captured four of the six singles matches on the day, but Georgia Southwestern used a clean sweep in doubles play to edge the Braves, 5-4, Saturday afternoon at the Susan K. Smith Tennis Complex. 

The Lady Hurricanes (4-7, 2-5 PBC) jumped out of the gates to grab all three doubles points, including 8-3 wins at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles. Victoria Ondo and Mollie McGowan defeated Leigh-Anne McAfee and Hannah Herlocker at No. 2 doubles followed by Kalie Douberly and Melinda Vansant beating Madeline DiNunzio and Beverly Vause on court No. 3. Carly Cangelosi and Ginny Jones toughed out a close matchup against Mia Winterbottom and Shelby Bickel, 8-6, at No. 1 doubles to send Georgia Southwestern into singles play with a 3-0 lead.

Winterbottom changed the tone of the match by allowing only one game against Cangelosi 6-0, 6-1 in No. 1 singles and then McAfee won her first set 6-2 on court No. 2 but dropped the second set to Douberly, 6-2. She then won the third set tiebreaker match 6-3 to make the score 3-2. Herlocker upended McGowan 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3 singles before Bickel was defeated by Ondo at No. 4 singles. Monica Espitia ousted Vansant 6-4, 7-5 on court No. 6 to tie the contest at four apiece. Jones then bested DiNunzio 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 to give the Lady Hurricanes the win. 

The Lady Braves will return to action on Sunday against Columbus State in Columbus, Ga. Match time is slated for 10 a.m.