Results

DENTON, Texas – Middle Tennessee’s Taylor Coffey outlasted Mariya Krachok in three sets to give the Blue Raiders a 4-2 victory over the University of South Alabama in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Tennis Championships Friday afternoon at the Waranch Tennis Center.

The two teams endured a lengthy rain delay that extended the match by several hours.

No. 3 seed MTSU moves on to the semifinals to face Florida International and improves to 15-6 on the year. USA ends its season at 14-6.

“Today was a frustrating and disappointing loss,” said Jaguars head coach Jaco Keyser. “Give credit to MTSU who did a better job than us handling the conditions. It's a disappointing loss to end a good solid season.”

The Blue Raiders claimed the doubles point and took a 3-0 lead on straight sets wins at Nos. 1 and 3. Yuiri Nomoto defeated senior Alina Volman (Lugansk, Ukraine) 6-4, 6-2 on the No. 1 court and Flavia Nagayama topped senior Chané Hines (Johannesburg, South Africa) 6-2, 6-2.

South Alabama cut the deficit to 3-2 thanks to sophomore Emily Newton (Dothan, Ala.) and Mary Angela Martin (Mobile, Ala.). Newton earned USA’s first point of the day 6-4, 6-4 over Nayara Moraes at No. 4 and Martin dropped just four games at No. 5 in her 6-3, 6-1 victory against Marietta Bigus.

Newton ends the regular season with a 19-match win streak and an 18-0 record in dual matches.

Coffey and Krachok’s match was the only completed match to go three sets. Krachok rallied from a first-set loss in a tiebreaker to force a deciding set before falling 7-6, 3-6, 6-2.

Middle Tennessee took a 1-0 lead after doubles with an 8-3 win at No. 2 and 8-5 victory at No. 3.

“I’m proud of girls for taking on the responsibility of rebuilding this program,” Keyser said. “I’m proud of girls having the biggest turnaround in the nation with regards to win percentage over the previous year. I’m proud of how we competed and the culture and environment that has been established.

“Having said that, our goal is not to be middle of the pack in the Sun Belt,” Keyser continued. “Our goal and expectation is to win the conference. Today is very disappointing with regards to that. We need to take a few days off and then figure out why we came up short and make the needed improvements in order to keep moving in the right direction.”

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—