BOX SCORE
BOCA RATON, Fla. – The No. 21 Nova Southeastern tennis team (8-13) ended the 2013 Sunshine State Conference Women’s Tennis Championship in seventh place after defeating the No. 14 Tampa Spartans (14-8), 5-4, Saturday at the South County Regional Park.
The Sharks earned the upset by starting the morning off right, winning two out of three doubles matches. Sophomores
Alexandra Johansson (Sydney, Australia) and
Charlotte Cote (Montreal, Canada) earned one of their biggest wins of the year in the first draw, defeating No. 25 Lauren Hewett and Meg Wladimirski, 8-1.
On the bottom end of the doubles lineup,
Bianca Roberts (So., Tampa, Fla.) and
Linda Kornienko (Fr., Fort Myers, Fla.) teamed up for the first time in the tournament to narrowly beat Thashia Garcia and Chloe Pereira, 9-8 (7-4). The Sharks’ lone loss in doubles play came from
Austin Lavallii (Sr., Williamston, Mich.) and
Sabrina Kierberg (Fr., Berlin, Germany), who fell to Kelsey Matthews and Lindsay Nochowicz, 8-5.
From there, the Sharks and Spartans traded shots in singles play to bring the match down to the wire. Roberts earned the Sharks’ quickest victory in the five hole, taking out Pereira, 6-1, 6-2. The Spartans swung back, as
Carlee Rizzolo (Fr., Livingston, N.J.) was toppled by Nochowicz, 6-1, 6-1.
Kierberg held down the top spot in the lineup for NSU and defeated Tampa’s ace in Wladimirski, 6-2, 6-4. In a three-set match, Johansson lost in the second flight to Hewett, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. Tampa tied the match at four wins apiece, as Kornienko fell to Matthews in the fourth draw, 7-5, 6-1.
The match came down to the sixth flight, where
Iryna Serdyuk (Fr., Boca Raton, Fla.) was making her SSC tournament debut in her hometown. Serdyuk came through for the Sharks and defeated Jenelle Morgan, 6-4, 6-4. It was her first win against a SSC opponent since Feb. 22 against Eckerd.
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