Two wins for women’s tennis power them into third day of competition.
After dropping their opening match of the season, Carson-Newman Women’s Tennis has played lockdown, shutting out Montreat and King in the home opener.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – After dropping their opening match of the season, Carson-Newman Women's Tennis has played lockdown, shutting out Montreat and King in the home opener.
The Eagles kicked off the weekend with a 7-0 sweep of Montreat, dominating in every match. With first serve scheduled at 6:00 PM, it took upwards of six hours for the Eagles to wrap up their first match of the weekend.
"Our women's team is the definition of what team chemistry is and what it should look and sound like," said head coach Nate Gangelhoff. "We went past midnight and all of our girls were locked in with each other until the last point."
The women began with a clinic at doubles. Montreat only has five players on their roster, so the Cavaliers automatically had to forfeit a doubles and singles line. Kira Baacke and Maria del Mar Sarda Marti finally rejoined as a pair after a stellar performance in the fall ITA Tournament. The first doubles pair took down the Cavaliers by a score of 6-1 for their first win of 2026 together. Andrea Aguiar and Sindija Manovska secured a victory as well with a 6-1 score in second doubles.
From there, the Eagles cleaned up. Kira Baacke played at first singles and defeated Montreat's Clara Roman 6-1, 6-2. Mar Fraile made few mistakes in her match at 2nd singles, taking down Catalina Pan 6-0, 6-0.
The freshman Mia Dyer made a statement in her first match with the Eagles, also grabbing a 6-0, 6-0 victory. Andrea Aguiar grinded in the fourth singles slot for her first win of the season. Aguiar dropped set one 6-7, but worked back a 6-1 set two. In the tiebreaker, it took 24 points to solve, but the sophomore kept composed, grabbing the 13-11 victory.
"We are deep in talent, and I told them that one girl's win is everyone's win. It's because of how they practice and make each other better," said Gangelhoff.
After a 7-0 sweep, the Eagles returned to the Knoxville Racquet Club the same day, but about 12 hours later for their second bout of the weekend against King.
Yet again, C-N made it look simple, wrapping up their Saturday contest with a 4-0 win.
"Such and all around stellar performance by our women's team today. We simply just took care of business," said Ganglehoff.
Baacke and Sarda Marti slotted in at first doubles for the second day in a row, taking the 6-2 victory to keep their doubles record perfect in 2026. Hala Awad and Kerrigan Spiers paired together for the first time this season at third doubles, and the two fit together well. The senior and the sophomore took a 6-0 victory over Rani Malhoe and Sarah Hale from King.
Leah McBride and Mar Fraile played second doubles for the Eagles in the contest, but were cut short after the point was secured but the first and third doubles pairs. At the time, they were tied 4-4.
Mar Sarda Marti got the party started early at second singles for the Eagles, snatching her first singles victory 6-0, 6-1. This helped the Eagles propel themselves to a 2-0 lead.
The bottom half of the lineup came up big to keep the Eagles legs as fresh as possible for their final match of a back-to-back-to-back days for C-N tennis. Mar Fraile played #5 for Carson-Newman and dropped 3 games total in her 6-1, 6-2 victory.
Right behind her, C-N's player of the match, Andrea Aguiar, made a statement at six. The sophomore took down the Tornado's Lily Belcher 6-1, 6-0. This would secure the 4-0 victory for C-N and leave three other matches unfinished.
Hala Awad took the court for the first time in the first singles slot and defeated King's Deniz Aytun 7-5 in the first set, but was down 1-2 in the second set before C-N clinched the match on a different court. Sindija Manovska and Rani Malhoe were knotted up at third singles at 6-6. Abinaya Sweeton had won set one 6-4 and was tied in set two 1-1 when the match was finalized.
"There are still things to clean up and make sure we don't repeat mistakes, but that was rare today. Out girls' energy is unmatched and they play every point and match for each other," said Gangelhoff.
With a 2-1 record, C-N moves onto their final test to face Young Harris tomorrow at the LMU Tennis Complex. Action is slated to begin at 11:00 AM. For updates, follow @CN_Eagles on X and Instagram, or Carson-Newman Athletics on Facebook. Full coverage is also available at cneagles.com.
