The weekend started and ended well for the Appalachian State University women’s tennis team as they came away undefeated from their three-day tournament in West Virginia.
The Mountaineers came out strong with a 7-0 sweep against the George Mason Patriots in Saturday’s match.
The Mountaineers won all of their singles matches, highlighted by senior Ellie Linsell defeating GMU’s Brittany Pilkington in the No. 1 position (6-3, 6-2). Claire Cox bested Maya Hicks at the No. 2 spot (6-1, 6-1) while Jennifer Ansari served Ashley Delaney a loss at No. 3 (6-2, 6-0), according to goasu.com.
In the doubles, the Mountaineers won their first two matches 8-2, but lost the third match in an 8-6 set.
ASU was scheduled to play James Madison for its first game the morning on Sunday, but the meeting was canceled due to a power outage.
However, the Mountaineers played their second and final match of the tournament against Liberty University later that day, beating the Flames 6-1.
In the singles, Linsell defeated Alexandra Sheeran in the No. 1 position (6-4, 6-0), while Cox won against Cameron Richard in the No. 2 position (6-4, 6-4). Liberty’s Brittany Yang defeated Ansari 6-3, 6-2 in the No. 3 position, handing the Mountaineers their lone loss of the match, according to goasu.com.
The Mountaineers pulled off close victories in all three of the doubles matches.
Linsell and Mackenzie LaSure defeated Sheeran and Rebekah Jenkins in the No. 1 spot (9-7). Ansari and Cox beat Jessie Boda and Yang in the No. 2 spot (8-6), while Gabriela Celi and Brianna Amerllino beat Richard and Valerie Thong in the No. 3 spot (8-6), according to goasu.com.
Head coach Colin Crothers said that the team went into the tournament with high expectations and he thought the team accomplished what they set out to do.
“Everyone on the team played well and we’re very happy coming away with wins in both the singles and doubles matches,” Crothers said. “Liberty has played us close the last two years so it was great to have an entire team effort in the victory.”
The Mountaineers are now 3-1 on the season and their next match is at home against Radford Saturday at 3 p.m.
Story: MATTHEW SMITH, Intern Sports Reporter