Final Stats

Lynchburg, Va. - The Coastal Carolina women's tennis team rallied from a 3-1 deficit at Big South rival Liberty on Saturday afternoon to top the host Flames 4-3 at the Hershey-Esbenshade Tennis Courts.

The win improves the Chants' overall record to 11-4 and extends their winning streak to 10 straight matches. More importantly, Coastal stays unbeaten in its five Big South matches and overtakes Liberty (14-3, 4-1) for first place in the conference.

The Flames gained an early 1-0 advantage in the match after securing the doubles point. The No. 3 pair of Libby Scott and Marie Babayan was the only Coastal pair to win a doubles match after the first two Chant duos fell behind.

Sara Bondar evened the match at No. 4 as the defending Big South Freshman of the Week kicked off singles with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Brittany Yang.

Liberty responded with two consecutive points as Maria Khval topped Honami Yazawa at No. 2 and Nicola Wellman edged Cari Barry at No. 6.

Babayan cut the Chants' deficit to one on the fifth court with a 6-3, 6-2 decision over Emily Groeveveld, and Scott erased the Flames advantage on the first court after downing Belen Rivera 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

The match's deciding point came down to the third court, where Romane Delay prevailed 6-4, 6-4 over Evangeline Crist to clinch the match.

"We had a good week of practice this week and felt confident going to today's match," said head coach Catherine Hewitt. "Our student-athletes executed well and got the job done today. It's a great day to be a Chanticleer."

The Chants will look to extend their streak and stay atop the league table on Sunday as Coastal remains in Virginia to take on the Radford Highlanders at 1 p.m.

Coastal Carolina 4, Liberty 3
Singles competition
1. Scott, Libby (COASTALW) def. RIVERA, Belen (LIBERTY) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)
2. KHVAL, Maria (LIBERTY) def. Yazawa, Honami (COASTALW) 6-3, 6-1
3. Delay, Romane (COASTALW) def. CRIST, Evangeline (LIBERTY) 6-4, 6-4
4. Bondar, Sara (COASTALW) def. YANG, Brittany (LIBERTY) 6-1, 6-2
5. Babayan, Marie (COASTALW) def. GROENEVELD, Emily (LIBERTY) 6-3, 6-2
6. WELLMAN, Nicola (LIBERTY) def. Berry, Cari (COASTALW) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. KHVAL, Maria/YANG, Brittany (LIBERTY) def. DELAY, Romane/WALL, Natalie (COASTALW) 8-4
2. CRIST, Evangeline/THONG, Valerie (LIBERTY) def. YAZAWA, Honami/BONDAR, Sara (COASTALW) 8-3
3. SCOTT, Libby/BABAYAN, Marie (COASTALW) def. RIVERA, Belen/GROENEVELD, Emily (LIBERTY) 8-6

Match Notes:
Coastal Carolina 11-4
Liberty 14-3
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (4,2,6,5,1,3)