PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – App State finished its season in the quarterfinals Sun Belt Women's Tennis Tournament on Friday with a 4-3 loss to Georgia Southern.
The fifth-seeded Mountaineers (13-8) mounted an early 3-0 lead against the fourth-seeded Eagles (19-5) following a day-and-a-half of weather delays at the Peachtree City Tennis Center. But Georgia Southern's four straight singles wins sent it to the semifinals in heartbreaking fashion for
Ashleigh Antal's App State squad.
App State won the doubles point with wins on court one by
Savannah Dada-Mascoll and
Ellie Murphy (6-3) and on court two by
Helena Jansen and
Erika Dodridge (6-4).
Dodridge made it 2-0 for App State for the first singles result of the day on court four. After winning the first set 6-3, the Eagles' Lindsay Tulenko retired early in the second set.
The next to finish was
Olwyn Ryan-Bovey. Her dominating 6-3, 6-2 win over Paula Hijos on court six extended the Mountaineers' lead to 3-0.
Georgia Southern's four straight singles wins ensued, with Nanaka Kijima defeating
Maggie Pate (7-5, 6-3) on court three, Ana Tsitavets defeating Dada-Mascoll (6-3, 4-6, 6-0) on court two, Ninon Martinache defeating
Virginia Poggi (6-7, 7-6, 6-0) on court five, and Silvia Martinez defeating Jansen (3-6, 6-3, 6-4) on court one.
App State's 13-8 record is its best since 2019. This was the second time in program history that the Mountaineers advanced to the Sun Belt quarterfinals.
