BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – According to head coach Jim Corn, his Runnin' Bulldogs women's tennis squad gave a "phenomenal effort," but fell to Charleston Southern, 5-2, in a Big South Conference match on Sunday afternoon.
 
"I'm very proud of our effort," said Corn. "Charleston Southern is an excellent team, one of the top teams in our conference. We played them toe-to-toe and had several opportunities but just came up short. We played some of our best tennis of the season and had several chances that could have gone our way but didn't. The effort was phenomenal."
 
Gardner-Webb (2-9, 0-4 BSC) made Charleston Southern (8-3, 4-0 BSC) fight to clinch the doubles point to open the match. Valentine Limauge and Sarah Rieckmann (No. 2) and Daniela Naupari and Paula Romero (No. 3) both fell by 7-5 scores, which gave the Bucs the point. At No. 1 doubles, Sandra Bolstad and Miljana Ristic won in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-1).
 
"With the doubles point, all of our teams had to battle back, and they did, giving us a real shot to win it," said Corn. "Sandra and Miljana battled from a 5-1 deficit to win, so that shows you that we can compete with anyone. We are excited about what's coming up."
 
As singles action started, Charleston Southern took the first match at No. 2, 6-1, 6-3. Limauge won the first singles match for the Runnin' Bulldogs, with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the No. 5 position.
 
The Bucs were victorious at No. 6 and No. 1 in two sets before Ristic put up a three-set fight in the No. 3 position, but fell in a super tiebreaker, 10-5.
 
Naupari closed out the match with a three-set victory at No. 4, winning 6-1 in the opening set, before falling in the second. She won 6-4 in the third set to clinch the victory.
 
Gardner-Webb will return to action on Saturday, March 24, for a BSC match against Radford. First serve of the Runnin' Bulldogs' third of five consecutive home matches is set for 2 p.m.