GWU Drops Home Finale, 5-2, versus Radford on Sunday Afternoon
April 06, 2014 | Women's Tennis
Boiling Springs, N.C. - Gardner-Webb's Rokia Sacko and Catherine White picked up singles wins in the squad's home finale, but the visiting Radford Highlanders grabbed momentum from a hard-earned doubles point and took straight set wins at No.'s 1-4 singles to secure a 5-2 road win over the Runnin' Bulldogs in Big South women's tennis action Sunday.
Despite a quick win for Radford (8-9, 3-3 Big South) at the No. 1 doubles spot, GWU (9-11, 2-7 Big South) put itself into position to win the opening doubles points with good starts at the No. 2 and 3 positions. At No. 2 doubles, GWU's Jenny Lunde and Rokia Sacko jumped out to a 4-3 lead against the Highlanders' Meg Napolitano/Grace Sarver pairing. At No. 3 doubles, Teodora Stanciu and May Walker Mixon forged a 5-4 lead versus Radford's Taylor Fay and Gisela Garcia.
Andrade/Fay clinched the opening point for the visitors by rattling off four straight games, defeating Stanciu/Walker Mixon 8-5. Sacko and Lunde pulled away to seal an 8-6 at No. 2 doubles with the point already decided.
In singles, Gardner-Webb put pressure on the Highlanders at all six positions, but was unable to close at the top four spots.
Fresh off a win at No. 1 doubles, Radford's Taylor Newman was able to hold off strong play from Yasmin Doost (Bray, Maidenhead, England) for a 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 1 singles.
At No. 2 singles, Gemma Valls overcame a fast start from Lunde (Oslo, Norway) to rebound for a 6-4, 7-5 win. Napolitano gave Radford the win at the No. 3 singles spot, out-dueling Ronia Hutterli (Duebendorf, Switzerland) to pick up a 6-3, 6-4 victory for the Highlanders.
Radford's other singles win came from Grace Sarver, who outlasted Valeriia Popko (St. Petersburg, Russia) by a 6-2, 7-5 margin.
At No. 5 singles, Sacko (Montreal, Canada) improved to 19-1 in singles play on the year by defeating Gisela Garcia 6-0, 7-5.
Freshman Catherine White (Rock Hill, S.C.) picked up Gardner-Webb's other singles win on the day,completing a comeback win over Fay with a 2-6, 6-4, 10-2 triumph at the No. 6 singles spot.
Prior to the match, seniors Jenny Lunde and Ronia Hutterli were recognized for their role in elevating Gardner-Webb's women's tennis program, both on the court and off, over the last four years.
Gardner-Webb closes out its 2014 regular season on the road April 10, facing Appalachian State this coming Thursday.
