Coastal Carolina University
Charleston Southern
Coastal Upended by Charleston Southern
4/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
CONWAY - The Coastal Carolina women's tennis team missed a chance to clinch its third outright Big South regular season championship in program history on Wednesday as the visiting Charleston Southern Buccaneers knocked off the Chanticleers 6-1 at the Coastal Carolina Tennis Complex.
The Bucs (14-2 overall) close their conference schedule with an 8-1 record to surpass the Chants (13-5 overall), who fall to 7-1 in the Big South with the loss. With one conference match still remaining on its schedule Coastal can clinch a share of the regular season title with Charleston Southern, but the Bucs will earn the top seed in the conference tournament with the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Chants cannot earn lower than the second seed in the conference tournament, however, as Coastal holds tiebreakers over both third place Winthrop (6-2) and fourth place Liberty (7-2).
Wednesday's loss also snapped the Chanticleers' 12-match winning streak that started back on Feb. 21.
Charleston Southern started the match strong, sweeping the doubles courts to take a 1-0 lead.
Honami Yazawa and Sara Bondar fell 8-6 on the first doubles courts, while the No. 2 and No. 3 pairings of Romane Delay/Cari Berry and Marie Babayan/Libby Scott each suffered 8-5 losses.
CSU's strong play continued into singles where the Bucs grabbed the first three points to clinch the match.
Valeria Koussenkova started off the singles round with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Berry on the sixth court, followed by a 6-2, 6-5 Yvonne Hubler victory over Yazawa at No. 5. The clinching point came on the fourth court where Mi'Kola Cooper bested Bondar 6-4, 6-2.
Sophie Cloessner also won in straight sets against Babayan at No. 5, while Delay fell in three sets to Angelica Sidorenko at No. 3.
Scott earned Coastal's lone point of the day, downing Marketa Placha in three sets at No. 1 to stay undefeated in Big South singles play with an 8-0 record.
The Chants' head to Presbyterian for their final regular match, set to begin at 10 a.m. on April 11.
Charleston Southern 6, Coastal Carolina 1
Singles competition
1. Scott, Libby (COASTALW) def. Marketa Placha (CSU) 1-6, 6-2, 6-2
2. Yvonne Hubler (CSU) def. Yazawa, Honami (COASTALW) 6-2, 6-5
3. Angelica Sidorenko (CSU) def. Delay, Romane (COASTALW) 7-5, 3-6, 6-2
4. Mi'Kola Cooper (CSU) def. Bondar, Sara (COASTALW) 6-4, 6-2
5. Sophie Cloessner (CSU) def. Babayan, Marie (COASTALW) 6-3, 6-2
6. Valeria Koussenkova (CSU) def. Berry, Cari (COASTALW) 6-2, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. Angelica Sidorenko/Mi'Kola Cooper (CSU) def. YAZAWA, Honami/BONDAR, Sara (COASTALW) 8-6
2. Yvonne Hubler/Nicolin Luecke (CSU) def. DELAY, Romane/BERRY, Cari (COASTALW) 8-5
3. Marketa Placha/Sophie Cloessner (CSU) def. BABAYAN, Marie/SCOTT, Libby (COASTALW) 8-5
Match Notes:
Charleston Southern 14-2, 8-1
Coastal Carolina 13-5, 7-1
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (6,2,4,5,1,3)
