Farmville, Va. – The Gardner-Webb women's tennis team continued its strong play this week as the Runnin' Bulldogs traveled to Farmville, Virginia Thursday afternoon and captured their first Big South Conference match of the spring, defeating host Longwood, 5-2, at the Lancer Courts.

Gardner-Webb, which has won two consecutive matches, improved to 4-6 overall (1-1 in Big South) while Longwood, which had its three-match winning streak snapped, fell to 4-6 (0-1 Big South).

Starting the afternoon in the double's competition, the Runnin' Bulldogs No.2 doubles team of senior Katie Watts (Haslet, Texas) and freshman Milica Prokic (Belgrade, Serbia) fell to the Lancers tandem of Oriana Izarra and Feline van Eijkelenburg, 2-6, to give the hosts the early advantage.

The Runnin' Bulldogs, however, swept the other to doubles matches as sophomore Emma Shasteen (Floda, Sweeden) and Emilia Roslund (Lund, Sweeden) won (6-3) on Court No.1 over Phoebe Mitchell and Karina Rizvanova.

The Dawgs clinched the doubles point on Court No.3 as graduate senior Courtney Fyvie (Durbam, South Africa) and freshman Alizée Poulin (Beauceville, Quebec, Canada) prevailed 6-3 over Sophia Marchetta and Nina Hederich.

Gardner-Webb led 1-0 heading into the singles competition.

Shasteen started things rolling for the Dawgs in the singles competition on Court No. 1 with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over van Eijkelenburg.

On Court No.6 Prokic turned in a 6-3, 6-1 win over Kashmira Manohar.

Poulin (6-3, 6-2) prevailed over Mitchell on Court No.3 before Roslund clinched the Runnin' Bulldogs fourth match win of the season with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Izarra.

Longwood picked up two singles points as Watts lost (3-6, 7-5, 7-10) in three sets to Rizvanova on Court No. 5 and Fyvie fell to Marchetta on Court. No.4.

"This was a great road win against Longwood," said Gardner-Webb women's tennis coach Jim Corn. "It was a total team effort today. I'm really proud of the effort we gave against a tough, well-coached Longwood team (which had won three-consecutive matches)."

Up Next — The Runnin' Bulldogs will travel to Durham, N.C. to take on North Carolina Central on Saturday (3/16) at 1PM.