Eagles hope for first conference wins in double SACtion week
Carson-Newman Women’s Tennis is scheduled to play in two conference matches against Coker and Emory & Henry this week.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman Women's Tennis is scheduled to play in two conference matches against Coker and Emory & Henry this week.
Carson-Newman Women's Tennis is 3-7 on the season and will be coming into the match with Coker fresh off a 5-2 loss to Nebraska-Kearney. The Eagles have struggled of late, losing their last six matches in a row.
The Eagles also have yet to record a conference win on the women's side. In SAC matches against Lenoir-Rhyne and UVA Wise, the Eagles lost by 4-3 decisions. They also took a 4-0 loss to #6 Catawba.
As such, C-N will hope to get its first conference win on Saturday against Coker. The Cobras are 5-7 overall this season and 1-4 in SAC action. The Cobras just took their first conference win over Tusculum last Saturday, but fell to Anderson on Wednesday, 4-3.
Coker was projected 5th in the conference's preseason poll. They currently sit tied for 8th in the SAC standings with one win each.
The Cobras carry just seven women on their roster. Ilona Hernandez-Sanchez plays #1 for Coker and will most likely face Hala Awad. Awad will have to take care of a player who is 8-4 in singles play and 6-3 in doubles. Hernandez-Sanchez has not lost a singles match since Feb. 25 when the Cobras played Wingate. However, Hala Awad has played stellar at the one slot for the Eagles, holding a 5-1 record in solo play.
Salome Sierra and Caroline Meyers have been dominant as a second doubles pair as well. The two are 8-2 on the year. Awad and freshman Kerrigan Spiers have been C-N's winningest pair, at 4-2 on the year.
The Eagles are 8-4 against the Cobras in the all-time series. The last time C-N lost to the Cobras is a fresh wound, as it was the match that knocked the Eagles out of the SAC Tournament last year, 4-3. The last time Carson-Newman lost to Coker in the regular season was in the 2022-23 season.
Then C-N will turn around to Tuesday to play Emory & Henry. The Wasps are 3-9 on the season with wins over Johnson (Tenn.), Mars Hill, and Ferrum. This makes them 1-4 in conference play.
The Wasps are coming off a 0-4 loss to LMU on Wednesday and will play #19 Wingate on Saturday before hosting the Eagles.
Katie Bradley is the Wasp's winningest singles player at 5-3 this season. She has bounced between the fourth and fifth spots in the lineup.
Carson-Newman is 3-0 all-time against the Wasps, with their last win coming in a 4-0 decision. Kira Baacke and Sindija Manovska paired up and won at first doubles, and Maria del Mar Sarda Marti and Mar Fraile both won their singles matches last season.
First serve between the Eagles and Cobras is expected to begin sometime after 1:30 PM.
