BOX SCORE
LAKELAND, Fla. – The No. 18 Nova Southeastern tennis team (8-14) lost its first-round match of the Florida Blue Sunshine State Conference Women’s Tennis Tournament against the No. 12 Rollins Tars (12-9), 5-3, Friday in Lakeland, Fla.
The Sharks competed in a rain-soaked match that took two days to complete. On Thursday, the Sharks were able to complete doubles play and took a 2-1 advantage headed into the second day of play. In the second doubles flight,
Dominique Wimmer (Sr., Guntramsdorf, Austria) and
Charlotte Cote (Fr., Montreal, Canada) extended their stellar doubles record by defeating Ashley Rosenberg and Mariana Salvador, 8-6.
Prior to Wimmer and Cote’s victory,
Alexandra Johansson (Fr., Sydney Australia) and
Austin Lavallii (Jr., Williamston, Mich.), the 22nd ranked doubles team in the nation, were upset by the top flight duo of Kayli Ragsdale and Lisa Loft, 8-3. Doubles play would be decided in the third seed, where
Daria Burobina (So., Moscow, Russia) and
Bianca Roberts (Fr., Fort Walden Beach, Fla.) won their first match as a doubles team. The pair took down Elissa DeCampli and Callie Whitlock, 9-7, in a match that nearly went to a tiebreaker.
The Tars erased the Sharks’ lead at the start of play Friday. In the third seed, Roberts was swept by Rollins’ Salvador, 6-0, 6-0. The Sharks took another loss in the sixth singles flight, as Lavallii dropped a close second set in a loss to Ragsdale, 6-2, 7-5.
NSU tied the match with the Sharks’ ace in the hole in the top flight, No. 27 Johansson. Johansson took down a fellow top-50 player in Loft in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. The Tars would retake their lead after the second singles slot. No. 44 Wimmer lost a close first set to Rosenberg, 7-5, before the Tars sealed the point in the second set, 6-1.
The first-round match would come down to two three-set matches, with the Sharks needing both to move on to the semifinals. The Sharks would come up short, with Burobina dropping her No. 4 singles match to Whitlock, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. In tournament play, all matches are stopped once a team reaches the five points they need to clinch the match. Therefore, Cote’s match against DeCampli was halted, with Cote winning the third set, 2-1.
The Sharks will move on to the backdraw in a match against eighth-seeded Tampa Friday at 2 p.m.
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