March 8, 2008

Huntsville, Ala. As the West Florida women's tennis team (2-6, 1-0 GSC) took off to Huntsville, Ala. for the "conference weekend", the hopes on getting back on track rise. The fifth ranked, Argonauts, was off a tough season; however the weekend could not start better than it did. The first out of the four Argos GSC opponents this weekend was unranked West Alabama (8-1, 1-1 GSC). The Argos did not drop a match to easily defeat the Tigers, 8-0. With the result, the Argos earned its second victory of the season, the first one over a GSC opponent.

Playing conference rules, in which the first team reaching five points is declared the winner and the matches still on would not need to finish, the Argonauts stepped up and quickly got the lead. The Argonauts started off the match dominating the Tigers. In the doubles action, the Argonauts won all three matches without much difficulty. In the first doubles spot, the fifth ranked doubles team formed by Argonauts Suzana Cavalcante (junior/Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Paola Arevalo (senior/Cali, Colombia) defeated the team formed by Tigers Nichole Shanahan and Mariana Freitas, 8-2. In the second spot Argonauts Taylor Brewster (freshman/Ontaro, Canada) and Lorena Rebolledo (freshman/Puebla, Mexico) defeated Tigers Rachel Hardway and Amanda Morgan, 8-2. Renata Mattos (junior/Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Tatiana Rodrigues (junior/Sao Paulo, Brazil) defeated Brittany Williams and Ghenge Tsapayi, to give the 3-0 lead to the Argonauts.

In the singles action, In singles action was also dominated by the Argos who did not have trouble to reach five points and finish the match. The six singles matches were divided equally and played in two different facilities. The Argos needed to win only two more matches in order to be declared the winner. Playing at the first facility, Argonauts Cavalcante defeated Shanahan 6-2, 6-3 in the first singles position, while Mattos easily defeated Tsapayi 6-2, 6-0 in the third spot. Meanwhile, in the second facility, Argonauts Brewster dropped a single game in the fourth position to knock Williams, 6-1, 6-1, while Rebolledo defeated Hardway, 6-1, 6-2 in the sixth position. Simultaneously, Rodrigues knocked Morgan without dropping a game, 6-0, 6-0, to give the Argonauts a final score of 8-0.

The Argonauts improved to a 2-6 overall record, while the Tigers dropped to 8-1. The Argonauts have a tough schedule, in which three matches will be played this Friday, March 7th. The Argonauts return to action at 2:00p.m. CT in Huntsville, Ala., when it will face unranked GSC rival Montevallo (3-4, 0-1 GSC). This will be the second GSC opponent that the Argos will face this season.

Singles
#1 Suzanna Cavalcante (UWF) def. Nichole Shanahan (UWA) 6-2, 6-3
#2 Paola Arevalo (UWF) vs. Mariana Freitas(UWA) DNF
#3 Renata Mattos (UWF) def. Chenge Tsapayi (UWA) 6-2, 6-0
#4 Taylor Brewster (UWF) def. Brittanny Williams (UWA) 6-1, 6-0
#5 Lorena Rebolledo (UWF) def. Rachel Hardway (UWA) 6-1, 6-2
#6 Tatiana Rodrigues (UWF) def. Amanda Morgan (UWA) 6-0, 6-0

Doubles
#1 Cavallante/Arevalo (UWF) def. Shanahan/Freitas (UWA) 8-2
#2 Brewster/Rebolledo (UWF) def. Hardway/Morgan (UWA) 8-2
#3 Mattos/Rodrigues (UWF) def. Williams/Tsapayi (UWA) 8-0