College Tennis News - Seminoles Double Up to Defeat Georgia State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The No. 27 ranked Florida State women's tennis team defeated No. 61 ranked Georgia State, 5-2 at the Indoor Tennis Facility today. The Seminoles move to 5-1 on the year, while the Panthers fell to 3-4.

"Today was a good day," head coach Jennifer Hyde said. "We knew that Georgia State was going have a good team. They competed very hard, just like we thought they would."

Starting off with doubles, senior Amy Sargeant and sophomore Mia Vriens controlled their match on court two against Maryna Kozachenko and Whitney Bryd, winning with a score of 8-1.

With the edge in doubles, the Seminoles had to work from behind in the both matches left in play.

Facing their second ranked opponent in three matches, sophomore Daneika Borthwick and junior Kerrie Cartwright battled the No. 32 Abigail Tere-Apisah and Masa Grgan on court one.

Looking to break being down 6-5, Borthwick and Cartwright fell behind 7-5 before closing the gap to 7-6. Their fight fell short as Tere-Apisah and Grgan closed out the match on serve to win 8-6.

Facing a 7-5 deficit in what would be the deciding doubles match, senior Francesca Segarelli and Kristina Schleich pulled to within a game to 8-7 to Jocelyn Ffriend and Linn Timmerman once the dual on court one ended.

Segarelli served to tie the match at eight, before pulling away in the tie break, 7-3 to take the match (9-8) and the 1-0 lead heading into singles.

"After being down two match points, we did a really good job of getting that doubles point," Hyde said. "We fought our way back into that and I thought it made a tremendous difference. Doubles is getting better. We were challenged today and I think we needed to be in that situation where we had to win the doubles point with our backs against the wall."

In singles the Seminoles got out to four first set wins.

"The bottom of the lineup today just dominated," Hyde said. "They just destroyed their competition. To get up four first sets as quickly as we did speaks a lot about this team and the amount of depth we have in the lineup this year."

After trailing 3-2 in the first set, Sargeant won the next ten games and defeated Timmermann, 6-3, 6-0 on court four. Sargeant's victory put the Seminoles up 2-0.

Schleich made it 3-0 after delivering a 6-3, 6-1 win against Ffriend on court six.

On court five, Cartwright controlled her first set against Chaimaa Roudami before falling in a 2-0 hole in the second. Cartwright buckled down and conquered her next six games in order to clinch the match for FSU. She won 6-2, 6-2.

Georgia State chipped into the Florida State win with two points, claiming the first after Vriens retired her match on court two.

On court one, No. 28 ranked Tere-Apisah outlasted No. 35 Borthwick making the score 4-2. Borthwick suffered her second loss of the spring, 6-3, 6-4.

Fighting to keep her winning streak alive, Segarelli was pushed to a third set by Byrd on court three.

Segarelli pulled away in the tiebreak, taking the match 6-2, 4-6, 10-7.

Both Segarelli and Sargeant extended their singles winning streaks to nine matches, becoming the first team to do so since 1999. Marina Raic and Kia Asberg strung together 15 wins during the spring season.

"One thing about this team is that they compete unbelievably well," Hyde said. "That is going to be the tone for this team - competing hard and never taking a competitive opportunity for granted."

The Seminoles head to Miami, Fla. on Friday for a match against Florida International at 10 a.m. before taking on No. 12 ranked Miami on Saturday at 11 a.m. For more information on the match, check back to seminoles.com, Facebook and Twitter for updates.

#27 Florida State University 5, #61 Georgia State 2

Singles

1. #28 Abigail Tere-Apisah (GST) def. #35 Borthwick, Daneika (FSU) 6-3, 6-4

2. Masa Grgan (GST) def. #95 Vriens, Mia (FSU) 6-3, 1-4, 99-0

3. #91 Segarelli, Francesca (FSU) def. Whitney Bryd (GST) 6-2, 4-6, 10-7

4. Sargeant, Amy (FSU) def. Linn Timmermann (GST) 6-3, 6-0

5. Cartwright, Kerrie (FSU) def. Chaimaa Roudami (GST) 6-2, 6-2

6. Schleich, Kristina (FSU) def. Jocelyn Ffriend (GST) 6-3, 6-1

Doubles

1. #32 Masa Grgan/Abigail Tere-Apisah (GST) def. Borthwick, Daneika/Cartwright, Kerrie (FSU) 8-6

2. Vriens, Mia/Sargeant, Amy (FSU) def. Whitney Bryd/Maryna Kozachenko (GST) 8-1

3. Segarelli, Francesca/Schleich, Kristina (FSU) def. Jocelyn Ffriend/Linn Timmermann (GST) 9-8, 7-3

Match Notes:

Georgia State 3-4; National ranking #61

Florida State University 6-1; National ranking #27

Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (4,6,5,2,1,3)