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No. 11 Lady Hawk Tennis downed by Lee in SSAC first round
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Fifth-seeded Lee University
took two of three doubles matches before capturing victories at No.
4 and No. 5 singles en route to a 5-4 upset of 11th-ranked and
fourth-seeded Shorter University in the first round of the Southern
States Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Tournament last
Friday.
The Lady Hawks (11-4) will now have to wait and see if they are one of 24 teams that will head to Mobile, Ala., May 17-21 for the NAIA Women's Tennis National Championship at the Mobile Tennis Center.
Shorter, one of six ranked teams in the brutally competitive Southern States Athletic Conference, simply couldn't get the breaks it needed in the loss to the 16th-ranked Lady Flames (9-5).
Lee won at No. 1 doubles 8-3 and scored an 8-2 victory at No. 3 doubles. Shorter's Candice Laurent and Nienke Van Staveren salvaged an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles to keep Shorter's deficit at one heading into singles play.
Shorter's top three singles players -- Laurent at No. 1, Emma deBeaucoudrey at No. 2 and senior Danielle Monteith at No. 3 -- kept Shorter within striking distance with straight set wins in each of their singles matches, but Lee posted a hard-fought 6-4, 7-6 victory at No. 4 singles to even things up at 4-4 and then scored a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 5 singles to lock up the match.
The Lady Hawks placed one player on the SSAC's All-Conference team. Freshman Laurent, ranked in the ITA's Top 25 as a singles player all season, was named to the league's All-Conference roster.
