 |  |
Furman Women's Tennis Wins Ninth Straight Regular-Season Crown
April 14, 2007
Greenville, S.C. - With a shutout victory over the visiting Davidson Wildcats on Saturday afternoon, the Furman women's tennis team earned its ninth consecutive Southern Conference regular-season title with a perfect 9-0 league record. The Lady Paladins (13-9, 9-0) extended their regular-season conference winning-streak to 79 consecutive matches, meaning that three seniors will leave Furman having never lost a regular-season SoCon match. Furman said goodbye to Bonnie Baird, Lisa Bornt-Davis and Jacqueline Eckert on Saturday, as the ladies played their final matches at Mickel Tennis Center. Davidson dropped to 16-6 overall, 6-2 in the conference.
Furman did not lose a match en route to the 7-0 win, coming away victorious in all three doubles matches. Eckert and Lauren Osborne won their seventh straight match, defeating Meredith Skeeters and Virginia Berry, 8-3, at flight three. Lisa Bornt-Davis and Lauren Tomory knocked off Lora Dushanova and Michele Fanney, 8-4, to improve to 7-0 in SoCon matches. At number one Laura Gioia and Natasa Manojlovic remained perfect in league action with an 8-5 triumph over Kelsey Linville and Kim Whelan.
In singles action, the Lady Paladins came out firing. Gioia improved to 9-1 over her last 10 matches, posting a 6-4, 6-1 win over Linville at flight one. Tomory had little trouble with Dushanova, rolling to a 6-0, 6-2 victory at number five. Osborne clinched the match for the home team with her straight-set win over Fanney at number two. Wins by Baird, Eckert and Manojlovic made it a sweep for the Paladins.
Furman will head to the Southern Conference Tournament this week as the top seed. The Paladins will open play on Friday, April 20 at 8:30 a.m., at Earle Tennis Center at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. They will play the winner of the eight seed vs. nine seed match, which takes place on Thursday. The final seeding in the tournament will be announced tomorrow.
