Women's Tennis Earns Date With Gardner-Webb in Big South Tourney
Women's Tennis
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FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood women's tennis earned a first-round matchup with No. 8 seed Gardner-Webb in the Big South Championship and will take on the Runnin' Bulldogs this Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Rock Hill Tennis Center in Rock Hill, S.C.
The match will come just four days after the teams last squared off, which saw Gardner-Webb (4-13, 1-7 Big South) pull out a 5-2 win in Longwood's regular-season finale Saturday in Farmville.
With a win, 9-seed Longwood (8-10, 0-8 Big South) would earn a quarterfinal date with Big South regular-season champion and top-seeded Winthrop Thursday at 9 a.m.
Longwood will head into the tournament with one of the youngest squads in the country, playing with a starting lineup that includes two sophomores and four freshman. Leading that group are the top-three tandem of freshman
Yulia Almiron and sophomores
Jamie Breunig and
Marija Venta, who have spent all season in Longwood's top three singles spots.
Almiron has ascended to Longwood's top position full-time two weeks ago and now boasts a 4-3 record in singles play when stepping in as Longwood's No. 1. Breunig, meanwhile, took over as Longwood's No. 2 recently and is 2-0 in that slot, while Venta, who has played more matches at No. 1 than any other Lancer and is 3-4 in the two spots below that.
Along with those three, Lancer freshman
Tanja Skalda leads the team with a 10-6 record this spring with winning marks at No. 5 (7-3) and No. 6 (2-1). Her freshman classmate Kaoria Terunuma boasts a 7-9 mark in her inaugural spring season, while freshman No. 6
Julia Candiotto notched her second win of the season in dominant fashion, 6-0, 6-0, two matches ago against Norfolk State.
2018 Big South Women's Tennis Championship
April 18-21, 2018
Rock Hill, S.C. (Rock Hill Tennis Center)
Wednesday, April 18 – First Round
Match 1: No. 8 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 9 Longwood, 10:00am
Thursday, April 19 – Quarterfinals
Match 2: No. 1 Winthrop vs. No. 8/9 winner, 9:00am
Match 3: No. 4 Charleston Southern vs. No. 5 Presbyterian College, 12:00pm
Match 4: No. 2 Liberty vs. No. 7 UNC Asheville, 3:00pm
Match 5: No. 3 Campbell vs. No. 6 Radford, 6:00pm
Friday, April 20 – Semifinals
Match 6: Match 2 winner vs. Match 4 winner, 10:00am
Match 7: Match 3 winner vs. Match 5 winner, 2:00pm
Saturday, April 21 – Championship
Match 8: Match 6 winner vs. Match 7 winner, 10:00am
#GoWood
