Eagles build momentum toward conference tournament with sweep of Mars Hill
With their third win in a row, women’s tennis will return home to face their final two conference opponents of the season with three sweeps in their pocket.
MARS HILL, N.C. – With their third win in a row, women's tennis will return home to face their final two conference opponents of the season with three sweeps in their pocket.
Carson-Newman's 5-0 sweep of Mars Hill marked the 11th win in a row that the Eagles have recorded over the Lions in the all-time series and the 12th victory in their 16 all-time matches. C-N has now swept Mars Hill in 50% of their wins in the series history.
In a match that took less than an hour, the Eagles managed their third straight sweep of an opponent, and elevated their conference record to 5-4, the first time this season C-N has had a winning record in the SAC.
"Very steady win for us. Doubles was great and singles we took care of business," said head coach Nate Gangelhoff. "We remained focused and disciplined the entire match to make sure we got the victory. Excited for our girls in our last two matches."
It started with a clean sweep in doubles. Abinaya Sweeton and Hala Awad collected a 6-4 victory at first doubles for their fourth win as a pair. At second doubles, Kira Baacke and Maria del Mar Sarda Marti dominated in a 6-0 win. With the win, the two are 6-6 this season. The Lions did not have a third doubles pair, giving Mar Fraile and Leah McBride a win with no opponent.
Along that same trend, the Lions had no sixth singles player, handing Sophia Caminiti her third win of the year.
With C-N up 2-0, Andrea Aguiar blew right through her opponent at 5th singles, grabbing a 6-0, 6-0 win. The sophomore has a 5-3 record in singles this season and grabbed her second win in the 5th slot.
It was Hala Awad and Sindija Manovska to finish the job for the Eagles. Awad grabbed her 10th singles win of the season with 6-0, 6-1set scores at the first line. The senior has won her last seven matches in a row.
Manovska has similar scores to Awad with 6-1, 6-0 set wins at the third line. Manovska is now 2-5 in 2026 in solo play.
Otherwise, Kerrigan Spiers was up 6-4, 2-1 at the second singles line, while Mar Fraile has won set one 6-2 but was losing 2-1 in the second frame.
Carson-Newman is now 9-9 overall and 5-4 on the year in conference play. The Eagles are tied with UVA Wise 5-4 for 6th in the conference standings, but lose the head-to-head tiebreaker due to a loss earlier in March. Lincoln Memorial is below the Eagles in the standings at 4-4. LMU is the next team to visit C-N on Thursday. Carson-Newman is also a win back of Anderson with a match in hand.
C-N will move on to their final two regular-season matches of the year against Lincoln Memorial on Thursday, April 9th, before wrapping up the season with #28 Newberry on Saturday, April 11th. For updates, follow @CN_Eagles on X and Instagram, or Carson-Newman Athletics on Facebook. Full coverage is also available at cneagles.com.
