App State women’s tennis finished the regular season with wins over James Madison University in Boone and Georgia State University in Atlanta. The team took both matchups with 4-1 scorelines and ended the season with five-straight victories.
The end-of-season victories also pushed senior No. 12 Savannah Dada-Mascoll into the 100 career singles wins threshold and marked her 20th-consecutive victory. It also marked Senior Day in the High Country for Dada-Mascoll and senior Isabela Romanichen.
App State dominated JMU in a Friday morning matchup from the start. The team won eight of the 12 overall matchups against the Dukes, with three of the four non-wins for the team going unfinished. Every unfinished match either saw a Mountaineer tied in set score as the match was called or with a significant advantage.
Dada-Mascoll put on an absolute masterclass in the final home match of her illustrious career, allowing her opponent just two game wins across two sets. She was honored before the action began with a jersey and a bouquet of flowers.
The team hit the road south for a Sunday matchup with the Georgia State Panthers. With a win, the team would take control of sixth place in the conference.
The doubles portion of the matchup with the Panthers left much to be desired, as both Nos. 1 and 2 teams for the Black and Gold dropped their matchups. The freshmen tandem of Allegra Hodson and Sreenidhi Balaji were the lone doubles winners for App State.
After losing the doubles point, App State turned around and went undefeated in the singles portions with 4 wins and two matches going unfinished. Sophomore Alexi Cleveland clinched the win for the Black and Gold in the No. 6 spot, marking her third-straight win of the season.
Dada-Mascoll dropped her first set since Feb. 28 but marched from behind against two-time all Sun Belt Conference selection Maria Paredes to claim victory in a three-set thriller.
App State women’s tennis will now look toward the Sun Belt Women’s Tennis Championship in Rome, Georgia, which runs Wednesday through Monday. App State took home the sixth seed in the tournament, as the Sun Belt Conference does not use traditional conference wins and losses to determine its conference standings, rather leaning on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association to rank the teams heading into the single-elimination affair.
The team will face off against the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles in the No. 6 vs No. 11 seed matchup. The head-to-head will take place Thursday at 2 p.m., with the winner advancing to face Troy University the following day. The tournament can be streamed on ESPN+.
