Complete Results - Jacksonville State
Complete Results - William Carey

MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama women’s tennis team moved to 3-0 Saturday, dropping just one point in a pair of victories Saturday at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.

The Jaguars blanked Jacksonville State 7-0 in the opening match and defeated William Carey 6-1 in the nightcap.

“Today was a long day, but exactly what we needed,” USA head coach Jaco Keyser said. “There were plenty of matches, I’m just happy that towards the end of the day it started to shape up a little bit and we started to get a good feeling of the way we competed.

“I just feel like today we are a better team than we were last week. We still have a long, long way to go. Like I said last week, we are a work in progress but there was definitely improvement from last week’s match against Southern Miss.”

South Alabama dropped just three games in taking the doubles point from Jacksonville State and won the first four singles matches in straight sets to quickly clinch the match. Freshman Paula Sanchez (Bogota, Colombia) made the score 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-1 victory at No. 6 and sophomore Mary Angela Martin (Mobile, Ala.) won at No. 4 by the same score.

Sophomore Emily Newton (Dothan, Ala.) earned a win at No. 1 singles, defeating Raisa Guasti 6-4, 6-2 to put the match away.

After sophomore Mariya Krachok (Kiev, Ukraine) defeated Isidora Knezevic 6-4, 6-4 on the No. 5 court, sophomore Ramona Ghermani (Bad Wimpfen, Germany) and freshman Cinta Maria Papke (Flein, Germany) outlasted their opponents in three sets to complete the sweep.

In the second half of the doubleheader, Newton and freshman Michaela Meszarosova (Bratislava, Slovakia) quickly dispatched William Carey’s No. 1 doubles team 8-1, and Papke and Sanchez gave USA the doubles point on the No. 2 court with an 8-6 victory.

The Jags used three more straight-set wins in singles to finish off the Crusaders. Papke and Krachok earned USA’s second and third points with wins at Nos. 2 and 3 singles, respectively. Sanchez garnered South Alabama’s fourth point at No. 5 with a 6-1, 6-3 victory.

“As a team in the first match, I just thought we did a poor job with our intensity and with our body language, and the same thing in the doubles in the second match,” Keyser said. “But then, toward the middle-end of the singles in second match, we really started to get a good feeling with regards to our body language and the way we competed.”

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).

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