April 5, 2008

Agate

GREENVILLE, S.C. - The 67th-ranked Furman women's tennis team claimed the top spot in the Southern Conference with an impressive 6-1 win over the College of Charleston Cougars on Saturday. The Paladins also improved their regular season conference winning streak to 85 matches.

Furman earned the first point of the match with wins at the number one and number two doubles spots. In the top spot, the Paladin tandem of Laura Gioia and Natasa Manojlovic defeated Laura Borza and Link Leskosky by a score of 8-5. Lauren Osborne and Monica Arguello sealed the point with a close 9-8 (7-5) win over Holly Dowse and Keely Mulligan.

In singles play, Furman earned two quick points with wins at the number one and number two spots. At the top spot, junior Laura Gioia defeated Chelsea Albertz 6-1, 6-1, and at the number two spot, Monica Arguello topped Laura Borza by the same scores to put the Paladins up 3-0.

With strong players in the bottom half of the lineup, the Cougars looked to give the Paladins a hard time in the remaining four spots. However, Lauren Osborne picked up a 6-1, 6-4 win over Link Leskosky to seal the win and first-place spot in the conference for the Paladins.

The Cougars' only win came at the number five spot, due to a Paladin injury. At the number four spot, Jessica Preeg came back from a 2-5 deficit in the first set to defeat Holly Dowse 7-5, 6-7 (9-11), 13-11. At number six singles, Natasa Manojlovic earned a quick 6-2, 6-0 win over Amanda Becker to finish the match.

With the win, the Paladins improve to 12-5 overall and 6-0 in the Southern Conference, while College of Charleston falls to 19-3 and 6-1 in league play. The Paladins will host non-conference foe Boston University on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.