PENSACOLA, Fla. – In a match between two top 10 programs in NCAA Division II women’s tennis, visiting No. 2 BYU-Hawaii (20-0) handed No. 6 West Florida (11-3, 3-1 GSC) its first home loss of the season with a score of 7-2 at the Ralph “Skeeter” Carson Tennis Complex on Monday. The Seasiders took the lead in doubles and won five of six singles matches to snap the Argonauts’ four-match win streak.
In the second doubles spot Argonauts Caitlyn Baines (freshman/Panama City Beach, Fla.) and Cammie Gray fell 8-1 to Jenny Chin and Wen-Lin Wang. The Argonauts responded when No. 12 Renata Mattos (senior/Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Taylor Brewster (sophomore/Ontario, Canada) defeated Ayako Ikeda and Shawni Porter 8-6 in the second spot. In the first spot No. 24 Suzana Cavalcante (senior/Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Paulina Ojeda (sophomore/Santiago, Chile) were leading Yuan Jia and Elwen Li 7-4, but the Seasiders first duo came back and pushed to match to a tiebreaker. Jia and Li won the tiebreaker to win the second point of doubles and enter singles action with the 2-1 lead.
In singles BYU-Hawaii proved to be a strong opponent, as the visitors won five singles matches, four of them in straight sets. Mattos played in the fourth spot and fell 6-3, 6-0 to Wang. In the second spot, No. 15 Ojeda fell 6-0, 6-1 to No. 4 Li. Yana Bokareva (sophomore/Moscow, Russia) played in the third spot and dropped to No. 10 Chin by a 6-0, 6-3 score, giving the Seasiders the fifth point to secure the team victory over the Argonauts. The Argonauts responded by winning in the sixth spot, when Baines knocked Porter with a 6-2, 6-4 score. Brewster played in the fifth spot and fell 6-3, 6-3 to Ikeda, giving the Seasiders the 6-2 lead. In the first spot, No. 2 Cavalcante had the one set lead over Jia and dropped the second set. Jia came back to win the match in a third set supertiebreak 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 and give the Seasiders the final score of 7-2 over the Argonauts.
West Florida will next play No. 19 Georgia College and State on Wednesday, March 25 at the Ralph “Skeeter” Carson Complex in Pensacola at 1:00 pm. For information on all UWF Athletics, visit www.GoArgos.com.
