PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – The University of South Alabama women's tennis avenged a regular-season loss and defeated Georgia State 4-1 Saturday in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Championships at the Peachtree Tennis Center.

The second-seeded Jaguars advance to their sixth consecutive final and improve to 21-4. The Panthers, the No. 6 seed, fall to 11-13.

DOUBLES
-A rally on court 2 was the difference as South Alabama took the doubles point
-GSU's Eva Chivu and Daniela Ramirez defeated sophomores Yu Fujioka and Milka Pasanen 6-3 at No. 1, but sophomore Nikola Kohoutova and freshman Yurie Takanishi answered with a 6-4 win at No. 3
-Seniors Alexandria Stiteler and Patricia Martins fell behind 5-2 on court 2 but came back to force a tiebreaker and eventually won 7-6 (7-5)

SINGLES
-Fujioka put together a clean second set in putting the Jags up 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Ramirez at No. 2
-Stiteler outlasted Chivu in three sets on court 1, 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3
-After splitting the first two sets, Damira Muminovic dominated the third set vs. Kohoutova, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 to pull within 3-1
-Pasanen closed out the match on court 4, defeating Lara Vovk 6-1, 6-4

QUOTES FROM COACH KEYSER
On the comeback in doubles: "We talk about that all the time; we have to make little comebacks. That was a huge momentum swinger right there. We felt like if we could get ahead of Georgia State, sooner or later we'll be able to find some cracks and that's exactly what happened. We built some pressure in doubles, kept some singles out on the court and it worked out well."

On Stiteler and Fujioka getting wins at 1 and 2: "Momentum is always important but especially when playing on three courts. That's a girl that beat (Stiteler) up pretty good on Sunday, so for her to turn that match around, it gave the other girls a huge boost and they followed suit."

On the final matchup: "When it comes to the final, everyone is going to lay it out on the line. We're happy to be there but our goal is to win this thing so hopefully we can close it out tomorrow."

NOTES
-South Alabama improves to 2-3 vs. Georgia State in the Sun Belt Championships; the two wins have come in the semifinals and all three losses were in the final
-The Jags lead the series overall 15-7
-USA is 1-4 is its current five-year final streak; the one victory came vs. UT Arlington in 2015

UP NEXT
The Jaguars will face No. 8 seed Georgia Southern tomorrow at 10 a.m. CDT in the final.

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

Join the Baseline Club, the tennis-specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Baseline Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's and women's tennis programs. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/baselineclub
 
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