CARY, N.C. -In its third-ever ACC Championship final, the Florida State women's tennis team fell to Miami (No. 10) in a hard-fought, 4-1 decision. After the tournament, the Seminoles move to 16-9 on the year after defeating Wake Forest as well as upsetting a pair of top 15 teams in the country in Clemson (No.11) and Virginia (No. 13) en route to the championship.
"We fought so hard," head coach Jennifer Hyde said. "We gave so much heart this weekend and we gave ourselves a shot today, but I can't say enough about these ladies. They battled and hung in there but just fell a little short today."
Play opened up at 11 a.m. at the Cary Tennis Park before weather forced the match to be moved indoors to the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina.
The Seminoles lost the doubles point after courts one and two dropped their matches.
Mia Vriens and Amy Sargeant fell behind early to Melissa Bolivar and Kelsey Laurente and could not find their break. Bolivar and Laurente won 8-5 on court two.
On court one, Francesca Segarelli and Daneika Borthwick played a tight match with Clementina Riobueno and Monique Albuquerque.
Tied 4-4, Segarelli and Borthwick could not serve to go ahead, resulting in Miami taking the next three games.
Segarelli served to close the gap to 7-5, but Miami finished the match on serve, winning the dual 8-5 and taking the 1-0 lead heading into singles.
Kerrie Cartwright and Kristina Schleich were ahead 7-5 and about to win the match when doubles was stopped.
Miami made it 2-0 when Cartwright fell on five. After leading for most of the first set, Cartwright surrendered her lead to Albuquerque and could not hold her off for the rest of the match. Cartwright fell on court five, 6-4, 6-1.
The Seminoles found some momentum from an absolute thrashing on court four from Sargeant. Right from first serve, Sargeant was on her game as she defeated Riobueno, 6-2, 6-1.
Miami made it 3-1 after Vriens dropped her match on court three to Lina Lilekite, 6-2, 6-2.
With three matches left in play, the Hurricanes were getting ready to clinch on two of those courts.
After falling 6-4 in the first, Borthwick fought back and put pressure on Steffi Wagner (No. 60) by tying the set 4-4 before going up 5-4.
Over on court six, Schleich battled with Bolivar wire-to-wire and held her out of one match point, before Bolivar ended the match at 6-3, 6-4.
Play was stopped once Miami claimed the title at 4-1.
The two remaining matches on court saw a high level and extremely competitive tennis.
Borthwick had recently fallen behind 5-4, while Segarelli (No.96) was trailing Laurente (No.91) 4-3. Segarelli got out in front in the first and kept Lauente from taking the lead. Segarelli took the first set, 6-3.
"I'm proud of this team," Hyde said. "I'm proud of our seniors - Amy and Fran. They stepped up big for us this weekend. Now, we'll take a few days and recharge the batteries and get ready for NCAA's."
The Seminoles will learn their bid for the 2013 NCAA Championships on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. For more information, check back to Seminoles.com, Facebook and Twitter.
