MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The West Florida Women's Tennis team continued their dominance in the Gulf South Conference Tournament today taking down Mississippi College 4-0 to advance to the Championship match tomorrow. This is now 26 straight GSC Championships the Argonauts have appeared in over a stretch that goes back to 1995 when West Florida joined the conference.
In today's match, the Argonauts were solid from all three doubles positions and secured victories from the No. 2 and No. 3 spots to secure the lone point. With the doubles victory today, West Florida extends their doubles win streak to ten games and has improved their overall doubles record to 14-5 on the year.
Samantha Echevarria and
Karolina Silwanowicz picked up a victory today from the No. 2 position winning 6-1 for their twelfth win of the season.
Irene Recuenco and
Mayumi Saguchi paired up once again today and won 6-0 from the No. 3 position.
Berta Bonardi and
Sara Yigin were ahead 3-2 from the No. 1 position but due to the Argonauts already securing the lone point their match went unfinished.
In singles, West Florida jumped out to early leads from nearly every position and secured points from the No. 1, No. 4, and No. 6 positions to win the match.
Saguchi won her fourth straight match today winning 6-0, 6-0 as the No. 6 player. Bonardi took down Paulina Cota of Mississippi College from the No. 1 position 6-2, 6-0 to secure another point for the Argonauts. The decisive point came from the No. 4 position today as Yigin won 6-2, 6-1 to wrap up the match for West Florida.
From the matches that went unfinished on the day, Recuenco was tied 6-6 in the first set from the No. 2 position. At the No. 3 position, Silwanowicz held a 6-1, 6-5 lead over Fernanda Cota of the Lady Choctaws. Lastly,
Raissa Wagner was up 6-3, 3-1 from the No. 5 position before play wrapped up due to the Argonauts clinching the win.
Here's what Head Coach
Derrick Racine had to say after the match:
"The Women played arguably their best doubles all year today," Coach Racine noted. "No. 2 and No. 3 doubles made virtually no errors in their matches while No. 1 was just getting underway when we clinched the point. Momentum from doubles followed us to singles play where Mayumi played fantastic from the No. 6 position and Sara played great from the No. 4 position. Overall, we are feeling good heading into tomorows match and are happy to get a qualtiy match in today before it".
Schedule for Saturday – With the win, West Florida now clinches a spot in the GSC Championship match where they will face the No. 1 seed West Alabama. First serve is scheduled for 10 AM from Lagoon Park in Montgomery, Alabama, and with the chance of weather for tomorrow be sure to follow GoArgos.com and the UWF Women's Tennis social media pages for updates and information on the match.
Scouting West Alabama – The Tigers enter Saturday's championship matchup as the No. 1 seed in the tournament after finishing the regular season 14-2 and 10-0 in conference play. So far in the tournament, West Alabama has taken down Montevallo 4-0 in the opening round and Auburn Montgomery 4-0 in the semifinal matchup.
This matchup will be the second time this season these two teams have faced off as West Alabama came out with a 4-3 victory in the prior meeting. In this previous matchup, the Tigers dropped the doubles portion but won from the No. 3 thru No. 6 positions to win the match.
West Alabama is looking to win their first-ever GSC Championship tomorrow with a win while West Florida is trying to win their tenth straight.
How to Follow the Argos: For complete information on UWF Women's Tennis, follow the team on Twitter and Instagram at @
TennisUWF on Twitter and @
uwfwomenstennis on Instagram.