Women's Tennis | 3/21/2014 12:00:00 AM
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The FGCU women's tennis team suffered its first home defeat to an Atlantic Sun member as it fell, 5-2, to No. 63 North Florida Friday Afternoon at the FGCU Tennis Complex.
The Eagles move to 8-7 (2-2 A-Sun) on the season as the Ospreys improve to 8-3 (1-0 A-Sun).
“Today was a tough match,” head coach Courtney Vernon said. “UNF is a very solid team. We can grow a lot from today's loss and improve in the areas we found challenging. We look forward to hosting Albany on Sunday.”
The Eagles' two points came from the efforts of Elizabeth Means (Wesley Chapel, Fla./Wiregrass Ranch HS) and Candela Munoz (Alicante, Spain/Troy), finding singles victories is the No. 5 and No. 4 positions, respectively.
Means needed only two sets to find victory over UNF's Rebeca Pereira, taking each with a score of 6-4. Grabbing her ninth singles victory this season, the win ended a two-match losing streak for the sophomore.
Munoz reached success after a three-set fight against Michelle Valdez. Munoz took the first set, 6-3, but Valdez fought back in the second to knot the match at one set apiece with a 6-4 win. In the deciding third set, Giron kept focused and was able to flip the score of the previous set to favor her finding victory at 6-4 and securing the match. The win marks Munoz's fourth in a row, and improves her mark against A-Sun opponents to an impressive 3-1.
The Ospreys claimed an early lead in the match after winning all three doubles contests for the 1-0 advantage. Falling for the first time in almost two weeks were sisters Elizabeth and Sarah Means (Wesley Chapel, Fla./Wiregrass Ranch HS). Facing UNF's Simona Weymar and Rebeca Pereira the match stayed on serve forcing a tiebreak at seven-all. After claiming an early lead at 3-0, the sisters were bested by their opponents as the Ospreys rallied back to take the tiebreak 7-5.
The Green and Blue will continue action on their home courts as they host Albany on Sunday at 11 a.m. For complete coverage of FGCU women's tennis follow us on Twitter at @FGCU_WTEN and visit www.FGCUAthletics.com where full recaps and results will be available at the end of each day.
Doubles
1. Simona Weymar/Rebeca Pereira (UNF) def. Elizabeth Means/Sarah Means (FGCU) 8-7 (7-5)
2. Marina Cunningham/Taylor Hollander (UNF) def. Bettina Botha/Johanna Sterkel (FGCU) 8-4
3. Michelle Valdez/Quetzali Vazquez (UNF) def. Gyanna Mandic/Candela Munoz Giron (FGCU) 8-6
Singles
1. Simona Weymar (UNF) def. Sarah Means (FGCU) 6-4, 7-5
2. Esther Zuniga (UNF) def. Breana Stampfli (FGCU) 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7)
3. Marina Cunningham (UNF) def. Johanna Sterkel (FGCU) 6-3, 6-2
4. Candela Munoz Giron (FGCU) def. Michelle Valdez (UNF) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
5. Elizabeth Means (FGCU) def. Rebeca Pereira (UNF) 6-4, 6-4
6. Taylor Hollander (UNF) def. Bettina Botha (FGCU) 6-0, 6-1
