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Liberty University
Charleston Southern
Lady Flames Suffer First Big South Defeat
4/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
The Liberty Lady Flames tennis squad dropped its first Big South match of the season, falling to Charleston Southern by the final score of 4-3 on Saturday.
With the loss, Liberty falls to 11-9 overall and 7-1 in conference action. The Buccaneers improve to 10-4 and 5-2 in Big South play.
Charleston Southern captured the doubles point to claim the early 1-0 edge over Liberty. The lone Lady Flames' doubles victory came from the No. 2 doubles slot when Maria Khval and Anna Dollar bested Gabriela Srodowski and Kimberley Koerner, 6-2.
The Lady Flames responded with back-to-back singles victories to take a 2-1 advantage over the Buccaneers. Belen Rivera claimed the first singles victory for Liberty from the No. 4 spot, besting Srodowski in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1.
Mariely Hassey provided the Lady Flames with the lead after defeating Koerner in straight sets from the No. 5 singles slot, 7-5, 7-5.
The Buccaneers responded with three unanswered singles victories to claim a 4-2 edge over the Lady Flames. After victories from the No. 6 and No. 2 singles spots to take the 3-2 lead, Charleston Southern clinched the overall match when Nicolin Luecke bested Khval in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
With the overall contest clinched in favor of the Buccaneers, Evangeline Crist collected the final singles victory of the match after besting Brianna Thompson in three sets, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1.
"Charleston Southern was mentally stronger than us and made less errors than we did," stated head women's tennis coach Jeff Maren. "They were the better team today. Hopefully we will learn from this match and come back stronger as a result."
Liberty returns to action tomorrow with a non-conference tilt against College of Charleston at 1:30 p.m. in Charleston, S.C.
Charleston Southern 4, Liberty 3
Doubles
- Luecke/Thompson (CSU) def. Thong/Crist (LU), 6-1
- Dollar/Khval (LU) def. Srodowski/Koerner (CSU), 6-2
- Koussenkova/Cloessner (CSU) def. Panchenko/Anderson (LU), 6-3
Singles
- Luecke (CSU) def. Khval (LU), 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
- Cloessner (CSU) def. Dollar (LU), 7-6, 7-5
- Crist (LU) def. Thompson (CSU), 6-3, 6-7, 6-1
- Rivera (LU) def. Srodowski (CSU), 7-5, 6-1
- Hassey (LU) def. Koerner (CSU), 7-5, 7-5
- Koussenkova (CSU) def. Thong (LU), 2-6, 6-0, 6-2
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2,3
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
4,5,6,2,1,3