STATESBORO – South Carolina State women's tennis team fell short in a disappointing 4-3 loss to No. 67 Georgia Southern Thursday afternoon at the Wallis Tennis Center.

The Lady Bulldogs fall to 4-2 on the season, while the Eagles improve to 11-1 to extend their current win streak to five cracking the ITA's Division I team rankings.

Georgia Southern collected the all-important doubles point in the match early in the contest.  

South Carolina State came out in singles play and won four of six first sets  at the No.1 spot with Sofiya Chursina (SCSU) def. Silvia Martinez (GS) 6-1, 1-6, 6-3; at the No. 5 spot Teodora Vujicic (SCSU) def. Mackenzie Leopold (GS) 7-6, 6-2 and at the No. 6 spot Feriel Mahbouli (SCSU) def. Paula Hijos (GS) 7-5, 6-3, respectively.

Tulenko extended the Eagles' lead to 2-0 with a quick 6-2, 6-0 win over Rachida Berjane at No. 3 singles, then Ninon Martinache made it a 3-0 lead with her 6-3, 6-3 win over Semlali Hind at No. 2 singles.

The Bulldogs would tie the match, however, with straight-set singles wins at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, as well as a three-set win at No. 1 singles, pushing all the attention to court four. South Carolina State's Nalanda Silva took the first set in a tiebreaker, but Kijima rallied for a 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 win to clinch the victory.

"That South Carolina State team was definitely not the same team we played last year," Georgia Southern head women's tennis coach Sean McCaffrey said. "So much credit goes to them for showing up and putting up a huge fight against us. They really had us battling and trying to find ways to deal with much of their power.

"We knew we would have a tough match this afternoon. Georgia Southern going into the match was 10-1 and nationally ranked," said head coach Hardeep Judge." The doubles point was big, and we came out very flat at number 1&2 doubles."
 
Judge noted, "We battled hard in singles against a very good team and tied the match at 3-3 with the deciding match in the third set on court 4 and unfortunately just came up a little short. Although it's a tough loss for the team we will continue to work on the things that will put us in better positions to win these close matches."
 
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RESULTS
Singles
1. Sofiya Chursina (SCSU) def. Silvia Martinez (GS) 6-1, 1-6, 6-3
2. Ninon Martinache (GS) def. Semlali Hind (SCSU) 6-3, 6-3
3. Lindsay Tulenko (GS) def. Rachida Berjane (SCSU) 6-2. 6-0
4. Nanaka Kijima (GS) def. Nalanda Silva (SCSU) 6-7, 6-2, 6-4
5. Teodora Vujicic (SCSU) def. Mackenzie Leopold (GS) 7-6, 6-2
6. Feriel Mahbouli (SCSU) def. Paula Hijos (GS) 7-5, 6-3
Doubles
1. Silvia Martinez/Lindsay Tulenko (GS) def. Sofiya Chursina/Semlali Hind (SCSU) 6-3
2. Sonja Keranen/Ninon Martinache (GS) def. Rachida Berjane/Feriel Mahbouli (SCSU) 6-0
3. Nalanda SIlva/Teodora Vujicic (SCSU) led Mackenzie Leopold/Sophie Wagemaker (GS) 5-4, unfinished