Eagles soar in day one of Eagle Invitational action
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Carson-Newman women’s tennis saw a pleothra of singles competitors make their mark as the Eagle Invitational commenced Friday
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Carson-Newman women's tennis saw a pleothra of singles competitors make their mark as the Eagle Invitational commenced Friday in Knoxville. The Eagles were looking to build upon their pre-existing fall success of late and wrap up the fall portion of the season with some quality matches across the board.
Action began for the Eagles with a round of doubles for all competitors before each athlete saw two rounds of singles from Tyson Park in Knoxville, Tennessee on Friday.
To start off the day for C-N, graduate student Hannah Price (Knoxville, Tenn.) and junior Natasha Forrest (Jersey, United Kingdom) were in action against the pair of Floeth and Loretz from Tusculum. In a highly competitive round of doubles, C-N took home the 7-5 result and their first victory on the day.
Shortly after, sophomore Violetta Khisamova (Yaroslavl, Russia) and senior Ana Carla Resende (Minas Gerais, Brazil) defeated Balakhrishnan and Tiscornia from University of Charleston, 6-0. This moved C-N to 2-0 in doubles as the final pairing of Summer Reeves and freshman Maria Ulloa (Cuba) would look to make it a perfect 3-0 for C-N to start action.
Reeves and Ulloa faced off against Donaldson and Trammell from Lee University, but were unlucky to get the win as their opponents took the 6-4 victory to start Friday morning action.
"Maybe because it was the start of the last fall tournament, but we did not seem to perform at our highest level as we have been doing so," graduate assistant coach Gabriel Dabdab said. "I know we faced some hardships, but there are still positives to pull out from how we performed."
Well, there would be major positives for C-N to gather from singles action as five Eagles will be in the finals of their individual flights come Saturday. To start off, senior Ana Carla Resende, fresh off a semifinals appearance at the 2021 ITA Cup, faced Tusculum's Hansen in the main draw Friday morning. Resende would win 6-0, 6-2 and move on to face Dong of Young Harris College. In their matchup, Resende won 6-2, 6-1 and now faces Singh from the University of Charleston in the finals of flight A for women's singles.
In flight B for women's singles, Hannah Price was in action against Ratiu of Young Harris to start off their singles matches. Price advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 victory and moved on to face Tusculum's Loretz in the next round. Heading into their matchup, Loretz had never lost to Price, but that all changed with a 6-4, 6-3 victory and a spot in the women's singles finals for flight B for C-N's Hannah Price.
Once flight C action commenced, the attention for C-N shifted to Natasha Forrest who kept the winning ways alive with two straight victories on Friday. Forrest defeated Chapui from Young Harris in her first round matchup before going on to defeat Loretz from Tusculum, 7-5, 3-6, 10-6 in the second round. Forrest will now be in the flight C women's singles finals against Floeth of Tusculum on Saturday.
In flight D, freshman Maria Ulloa also claimed a spot in the finals of singles action. After defeating Lif from University of Charleston, 6-4 6-2 in the first round, Ulloa went on to defeat Lee's Smith 6-3, 7-6 in the second round and now will be in the flight D finals on Saturday. Her opponent for the finals will be the University of Charleston's William who swept her first round matchup against Trammell from Lee before defeating C-N's Speiser 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 in the second round.
Junior Anita Chornei would the last Eagle to claim a finals spot in her respective flight after Friday's action. Chornei went head-to-head against Good of Lee University, winning 6-0, 6-1. Then, Chornei saw action against Glaves of the University of Charleston, making her first appearance in singles of the tournament. Chornei won 6-0, 6-1 and now faces Lee's Weiser in the finals on Saturday.
Julia Speiser started off her day in singles with a victory over Tusculum's Church 6-2, 6-1. However, this would be her only win on the day in singles as William from the University of Charleston claimed the 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 result and a spot in the flight D finals come Saturday.
The other Eagle in flight B was Violetta Khisamova, who started off the day with a loss but rebounded in her second match. After losing 6-0, 1-6, 10-7 to Tiscornia from the University of Charleston, Khisamova rebounded with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Young Harris's Mallath.
The other Eagle in flight A was Summer Reeves, but she was unable to capture a victory in any of her singles matches. Reeves started off against University of Charleston's Drouin as she would lose 6-4, 6-7, 10-3. Reeves then faced Lee's Kirr in the West side of flight A, losing 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 10-4.
"The team did pretty well overall and it was nice to see them support each other throughout the day," Dabdab said. "As with the men, it was good to see some local and quality competition to give us a chance to see where we stand as we end the fall season this weekend."
Carson-Newman women's tennis will conclude their time in Knoxville with the second day of action from Tyson Park starting at 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning.
Be sure to keep up with the C-N women's tennis team all season long across Carson-Newman's social media platforms and on cneagles.com
