FORT MYERS, FL – The FGCU women's tennis (4-5, 0-1 ASUN) suffered a 6-1 defeat to Furman (12-1, 1-0 SoCon) Wednesday afternoon at the FGCU Tennis Complex.

"Congrats to Furman, they competed in every match," head coach Courtney Vernon said. "I think we responded well after the UNF match in terms of energy and just coming out and battling.  It's disappointing not getting the win today but we're going to continue to build as we head into our match against Iowa Sunday."

The visitors came away with the first point of the day taking two of three doubles matches. On court No. 3, the pairing of Sara Kelly (Naples, Fla./Florida Virtual) and Patricia Villar (Logrono, Spain/Bachillerato Santa Maria/Louisiana Monroe) claimed a 6-3 victory, moving to 4-1 overall in 2019.

Furman built its lead snagging the first two singles matches on courts No. 5 and No. 4 as Laura Falceto-Font (Zaragoza, Spain/El Pilar Maristas Zaragoza) produced FGCU's lone triumph on court No. 6 (7-5, 6-2). The Paladins took the final three courts but the Eagles made them work. Julia Ascúa (Santa Fe, Argentina/Domingo G. Silva) forced a third set tiebreaker on court No. 3, just narrowly falling 8-6 (3-6, 6-1, 0-1) while Maja Ornberg (Kil, Sweden/De la Gardiegymnasiet, Lidkoping) fell in a second set tiebreaker 7-4 on the top court. (6-4, 7-6).

Singles competition
1. #50 Katarina Kozarov (FUR) def. Maja Ornberg (FGCU) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)
2. Katty Weymouth (FUR) def. Sara Kelly (FGCU) 7-6, 6-1
3. Julia Adams (FUR) def. Julia Ascúa (FGCU) 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (8-6)
4. Taylor Melville (FUR) def. Sofia Perez (FGCU) 6-4, 6-3
5. #123 Madison Dillon (FUR) def. Patricia Villar (FGCU) 6-2, 6-3
6. Laura Falceto-Font (FGCU) def. Carol Eliz. Kerman (FUR) 7-5, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. Julia Adams/Katarina Kozarov (FUR) def. Julia Ascúa / Maja Ornberg(FGCU) 6-0
2. Katty Weymouth/Madison Dillon (FUR) def. Madison Gallegos/ Sofia Perez (FGCU) 6-3.
3. Sara Kelly/ Patricia Villar (FGCU) def. Carol Eliz. Kerman/Taylor Melville (FUR) 6-3

Up Next
FGCU will face Iowa at 11 a.m. this Sunday at the FGCU Tennis Complex.

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HEAD COACH COURTNEY VERNON
FGCU's women's tennis team is led by three-time ASUN Coach of the Year Courtney Vernon, who led the Eagles to back-to-back ASUN regular-season crowns in her fifth season in 2018. She has mentored her student-athletes into earning 56 ASUN All-Conference and All-Academic honors, including 2014, 2016 and 2017 ASUN Freshman of the Year as well as the 2016 and 2017 Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the 2018 Player of the Year. Vernon has led the Green and Blue to a 65-47 overall record (.592) and 27-6 conference record (.827) in her six years at FGCU.