April 6, 2005

Greenville, SC - The Western Carolina women's tennis team fell to the 70th-ranked Furman Lady Paladins Wednesday afternoon in straight sets, 7-0, at the Mickel Tennis Center. The win was Furman's twelfth in a row, while the Catamounts dropped their fourth consecutive.

With the loss, the Cats drop to 4-12 overall, winless in seven Southern Conference matches. Furman improves to 15-3, 6-0 in the SoCon, atop the heap in women's tennis competition.

Western quickly fell behind 1-0 lead after dropping the first two doubles matches, with the third lost by default. The Paladin team of Caroline Bentley and Mary Neill Hagood, ranked 57th in the nation, defeated WCU's tandem of freshman Trish Hanson and junior Katherine Ptak, 8-2, for the first win. The duo of Bornt-Davis and Eckert knocked off senior Kristin Cotton and freshman Ashley Harris 8-1 to secure the double's point.

Furman then took a 2-0 lead going into singles play, picking up a default win in the No.6 singles slot. The Paladins went on to win the other five singles matches to give the Furman its seventh shut out on the year.

At No.1 Mary Neill Hagood downed Trish Hanson 6-1, 6-0, while Ptak was defeated by Caroline Bentley at No.2, 6-0, 6-2. In the flight three match, Cotton was defeated by Lauren Osborne, 6-1, 6-0. Playing at No.4, Bonnie Baird picked up a win over Harris, while in flight five Natasa Manojlovic, swept by Susanna Sjokvist with scores of 6-0, 6-0.

Western returns home this weekend for a pair of SoCon matches. On Saturday, April 9, the Catamounts will host Elon at 1:00 pm, with the weekend wrapping up with a 1:00 pm Sunday afternoon match versus Georgia Southern. Both matches will be played on The Courts at Reid Gym.

Singles
1. Mary Neill Hagood (FU) def. Trish Hanson (WCU) 6-1, 6-0
2. Caroline Bentley (FU) def. Katherine Ptak (WCU) 6-0, 6-2
3. Lauren Osborne (FU) def. Kristin Cotton (WCU) 6-1, 6-0
4. Bonnie Baird (FU) def. Ashley Harris (WCU) 6-0, 6-0
5. Natasa Manojlovic (FU) def. Susanna Sjokvist (WCU) 6-0, 6-0
6. Lisa Bornt-Davis (FU) def. (WCU) Default

Doubles
1. #57 Bentley/Hagood (FU) def. Hanson/Ptak (WCU) 8-2
2. Bornt-Davis/Eckert (FU) def. Cotton/Harris (WCU) 8-1
3. Manojlovic/Osborne (FU) def. (WCU) Default