No. 68 Lady Flames to Face Chanticleers in Road Match, Thursday Morning
3/7/2023 11:49:29 AM | Women's Tennis
No. 68-ranked Liberty will hit the road for a match at Coastal Carolina, Thursday morning. First serve between the Lady Flames and Chanticleers is set for 10 a.m. at the Stevens Tennis Complex in Conway, S.C.
Liberty brings a 9-4 overall mark into the match, including a 1-1 road record. The Lady Flames are coming off a 5-2 home triumph over William & Mary this past Sunday. Meanwhile, Coastal Carolina is 4-4 on the season but has won four straight matches. The Chanticleers defeated UNCG 6-1 in their most recent action and will face Mount St. Mary’s on Tuesday before squaring off with the Lady Flames.
This is the second straight week Liberty (No. 68) has been listed among the top 75 teams in the country. Last week, the Lady Flames earned a No. 66 national ranking, their best ranking in program history.
Lady Flames News and Notes
• Liberty and Coastal Carolina were former Big South rivals. The Lady Flames and Chanticleers have not met since 2016. Liberty edged Coastal Carolina 4-3 in a road contest on March 24, 2016 in what was the most recent meeting between the two squads. The Chanticleers hold a 14-7 edge in the all-time series.
• Liberty’s Esther Lovato is currently tied for second in program history with 87 career singles wins. She shares second place with Jordan Jenkins, who won 87 matches from 2008-11. The program record for singles victories is 92, held by Evangeline Crist (2015-18).
• Lovato is 19-2 overall in singles this year, including a 9-1 spring record. A win on Thursday would give Lovato her third straight season of 20 or more singles wins. The only season she did not win 20 matches was in a shortened freshman campaign (2019-20) when she posted an 18-5 record.
• Sophomore Maria Juliana Parra Romero is the team leader with 20 wins this year against only four losses. She is also 9-1 in singles competition this spring, with all of those results coming in the No. 1 spot in the lineup. Parra Romero’s next singles victory will be career win No. 50. The sophomore is 49-9 in singles during her first two seasons with the Lady Flames.
• A win over Coastal Carolina would give Liberty its 12th straight season with 10 or more wins (full seasons, excluding 2020).
• Tiffany Nguyen sports an 8-2 singles record in 2023 while playing in the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 positions in the lineup. Marina Davtyan is 5-3 this spring in the No. 2-4 slots.
• This is the first time in school history that Liberty has been ranked two times in one season. The Lady Flames’ only other team national ranking came on March 4, 2014, a No. 74 ranking.
