Results

NEW ORLEANS – No. 46 Georgia State took the doubles point and three of the top four singles flights to defeat the 53rd-ranked University of South Alabama women's tennis team 4-2 and win the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Championships Sunday afternoon at City Park Tennis Center.

The top-seeded Panthers win the title for the second time in the last three seasons, improve to 15-5 on the season, and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Jaguars, aiming to repeat as conference champions as the No. 2 seed, fall to 21-6.

"I'm proud of the girls; they battled hard," USA head coach Jaco Keyser said. "That's the cruel side of sports, isn't it? We had a great season. Anytime you win 21 matches, that's something special. We moved up in the national rankings and started at No. 75. We got back in the top 50, so we're moving in the right direction, but no doubt today is going to sting for a while because I felt like if we could get back to the postseason, we could do some damage.

"Credit to Georgia State, they played a great match today."

Facing an early deficit after losing the doubles point, South Alabama junior Laura Matuskova (Bratislava, Slovakia) evened the match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Tarani Kamoe on the No. 6 court.

Georgia State won the next two matches in straight sets to take a 3-1 advantage. Niri Rasolomalala defeated junior Monica Mitta (Fairhope, Ala.) 6-2, 6-3 on court 3, and junior Laura Valkova (Piestany, Slovakia) fell 6-3, 6-1 to Kristin Rehse on court 2.

USA freshman Alexandria Stiteler (Bradenton, Fla.) extended the match, outlasting Linn Timmerman 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 at No. 1 to pull the Jaguars within 3-2.

The final two courts both went to three sets. At No. 4, Jaguar senior Cinta Maria Papke (Flein, Germany) lost the first set 7-5, but battled back and evened the match at a set apiece with a 6-3 score in the second set. However, Daniela Ramirez broke Papke to clinch the championship, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.

"Winning the doubles point settled them down in singles and they played some good matches and got on top of us," Keyser said. "I'm proud of the way the girls hung in there and fought up until the end."

In doubles, GSU took the point with a pair of 6-3 victories. Kamoe and Timmerman defeated Valkova and senior Michaela Meszarosova (Bratislava, Slovakia) at No. 1, and Ramirez and Chiara Volejnicek downed Mitta and freshman Alina Zolotareva (Barnaul, Russia).

"They came out and played a good doubles point," Keyser said. "We'd won 12 doubles points in a row; doubles is one of our strengths. They came out and executed at a pretty high level. We couldn't catch up there for a while and that was a big difference."

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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