April 5, 2007

Agate

Mt. Pleasant, S.C. - The Furman women's tennis team came out on top in a battle of the last two unbeaten teams in the Southern Conference, posting a dominating 6-1 victory over host College of Charleston at the Patriots Point Tennis Center on Thursday afternoon.

The Lady Paladins (12-8, 8-0) have now won 78 straight regular-season league matches, and with one match to go, are looking for their ninth consecutive regular-season title. The loss was only the Cougars sixth on the season as they fell to 16-6 overall, 7-1 in the SoCon.

Furman won all three doubles matches, gaining the first point of the match. The Lady Paladins have yet to lose a doubles point in SoCon action. Senior Lisa Bornt-Davis and sophomore Lauren Tomory cruised to an 8-1 win over Chelsea Albertz and Julia Howard at flight three. Senior Jacqueline Eckert and junior Lauren Osborne secured the point for the Lady Paladins with an 8-3 defeat of Link Leskosky and Laura Borza at number two. At the top position, Laura Gioia and Natasa Manojlovic improved to 14-6 on the season with an 8-6 mark against Holly Dowse and Anna Lee Evans. All three Furman doubles pairs have yet to lose a SoCon match this year.

In singles, Gioia earned a dominating 6-0, 6-1 victory over Albertz at number one. Bonnie Baird put Furman up 3-0 with her 6-0, 6-2, defeat of Borza at number three. After a loss at number five, the Lady Paladins swept the remaining singles matches to stay unbeaten in league play. Gioia, Osborne, Baird, Eckert and Manojlovic all improved upon their undefeated SoCon singles records with wins against CofC.

Furman has one more conference match remaining. The Lady Paladins host Davidson, whose only conference loss came at the hands of College of Charleston last week, on Saturday, April 14 at 1 p.m. Prior to that match, Furman will close out its non-conference schedule with a road match at No. 6 Georgia Tech on Wednesday, April 11 at 2 p.m.