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Page 16 {The Blue Banner} Bulldogs’ strong start fizzles to a 5-2 loss against Campbell By Natalie Pearson Staff Writer NGPEARSO@UNCA.EDU In one of the longest games of the season, the UNC Asheville women’s tennis team struggled through 7 hours ;>nd 45 minutes of play only to lose to a tough Campbell team. The match, which was played in rare 68 degree sunshine, started off promising with strong doubles play, but slowly fizzled out to a disappoint ing 5-2 loss. “Campbell is a good team,” Head Coach Lise Gregory said. “They are very similar to us in the sense of a lot of depth, and I felt like it was a very winnable match, but the close ones didn’t go our way.”' The close ones Gregory referred to were Leslie Smith’s, Stephanie Schon’s, Devon Cavanaugh’s and Sar ah Brinkley’s matches, which all went to epic three-set battles. “They definitely didn’t back down when we thought that we had it,” said No. 5 player Brinkley. “We had to fight for every point, and they ended up just pulling it out.” The lineup for the Friday match was Smith at No. 1, S. Schon at No. 2, Ca vanaugh at No. 3, Britney Cloer at No. 4, Brinkley at No. 5 and Nicole Schon at No. 6. The loss, which ended the Bulldogs’ five-game winning streak and put them 7-5 on the season, was not all disap pointments. “It turned out to be a learning expe rience,” Brinkley said. “We’re so close Louise Bottomley runs across court to beating these good teams, we’re points away. Even though we lost I think we gained a lot of confidence.” Major confidence for the team also stemmed from the doubles matches in which Smith and S. Schon, and Louise Bottomley and Cavanaugh smashed their Fighting Camel opponents 8-6 and 9-7, respectively. “Leslie and Stephanie played a very good doubles match,” Gregory said. “Louise and Devon didn’t play the greatest, but they found a way to win when they were playing badly, which is something I love. It’s a very good quality.” Bottomley and Cavanaugh, who came back from a four-point deficit to ensure the doubles point for the team. to track down the ball during her 9-7 were thrilled about their victory. “We realized our match was very im portant and we managed to come back louder, more aggressive and move up a gear to get positive,” Cavanaugh said. “Coach told us in practice if we can be more aggressive and pick up momen tum, we can really intimidate our op ponent, and that’s what we did.” In the singles, although all players fought hard to upset the Camels’ 9-3 record, only Cloer succeeded in con quering her opponent 6-1, 7-5. “I was able to stay calmer than my opponent, and I was just able to put more balls in the court than she did,” she said. “I was down the entire second set, but the major turning point was her getting emotional, and I used that to Stephanie Schon - Statl Mrotographer doubles win against Campbell. my advantage.” Other scores for the singles matches were Smith 2-6, 6-1, 4-6, S. Schon 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, Cavanaugh 2-6, 6-1, 2-6, Brinkley 2-6, 7-5, 1-6 and N. Schon 3-6, 4-6. According to Gregory, these results came from not remaining as calm as needed. “Usually, we are very strong when you’re at a stage in the match where a lot of opponents would fold or give up, and when they didn’t, we panicked a little bit. We just didn’t handle those moments as well as we could. It’s something we will leam from, being calm when the result is in the balance,” she said. See TENNIS Page IZJ Men’s tennis comeback falls short against Fighting Camels By Jeremiah Reed Staff Writer JJREED@UNCA.EDU Despite a valiant effort, the UNC Asheville men’s tennis team lost three tight singles matches that went to a de ciding third set last Friday and fell to the Campbell Fighting Camels 6-1. “We’re a little disappointed that we fost all three, three-set matches, but I feel that the guys are handling adversi ty really well right now,” Head Coach Lise Gregory said. Freshman Matt Waissen picked up the lone singles victory for the Bull dogs, defeating Larbi Lanzouri in straight sets 7-6, 6-1. This was Wais sen’s fourth singles win this year. Sophomores Jonas Brobeck, Nico lai Nonnenbroich and Thomas Rees all showed resilience by fighting back af ter dropping the first set to force a third and final set. Normenbroich rebounded from los ing his first set 4-6 with a win in the second set by a 6-4 margin. However, he dropped the final set 6-3. Brobeck also fought back from a disappointing 2-6 loss in the first set with a 6-7 decision in the second set. Unfortunately, he was unable to com plete his comeback and suffered a 2-6 loss in the third set. In the final singles match of the day, Rees also forced a deciding third set after dropping the first set 7-5 and win ning the second 1-6. After entering the third and final set, the British native lost the decision by a score of 10-8. Rees said losing these tight matches was tough but showed confidence in his team’s ability to overcome disap pointment and find success. “Friday’s match versus Campbell was another frustrating day where, instead of losing 6-1, we could have easily turned that score in our favor. We are striving to get stronger, and I firmly believe it will just take one big win to get a run going into the confer ence tournament,” he said. Bulldog Assistant Coach Tom Hand said dropping all three set matches was a tough way to lose, but he admired the See LOSS. Page 17 J
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