April 3, 2010

Results

Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina women's tennis won four out of the first five game points to defeat Wofford, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon at the Catamount Athletic Complex. The victory gave the Catamounts (3-10, 1-6 SoCon) their first conference victory of the season, while Wofford (1-18, 0-7) dropped their 12th consecutive match.

Saturday's win gave the Catamounts their second victory in the last four games.

WCU claimed the all-important doubles point as freshman tandem Karen Jiménez Sarmiento and Carolina Lainez shutdown Wofford's Sabrina Smyers and Lucy Schermerhorn, 8-1. Wofford bounced back to take the second doubles spot as Stephanie Cox and Lindsay Larkin downed WCU's Izabella Glinska and Layne Arnold, 8-5. Catamount senior Amanda Massey and teammate Ainhoa Iglesias Díaz defeated Wofford's Haley Baird and Guinn Garcia, 9-7, in the first doubles slot.

Massey claimed the second point for WCU as she defeated Smyers, 5-1 in a retired match. Jiménez Sarmiento picked up her second consecutive victory and team-leading sixth in singles with a straight-set win over Schermerhorn, 6-1,6-1.

Wofford made it a 3-1 match after Larkin defeated Emily Turke, 6-1,6-0. Glinska, the junior from Toronto, Ontario, clinched the match for the Catamounts as she defeated, 6-0, 6-4 Baird in the top-spot.

The Terriers battled to win the last two matches as Garcia defeated Lainez, 3-6, 6-4, 2-1, in a early retired match. Cox then closed out the match with a Wofford victory, defeating Iglesias Díaz, 5-7, 6-4, 10-8.

The win gave the Catamounts their first conference victory since April 12, 2003 when WCU knocked off UNC Greensboro, 5-2.

"It was really important to get that crucial doubles point," said Catamount coach Jan Stubbs. "The girls worked hard in the singles and it paid off as we won our first conference match of the season. I am proud of their effort today."

The Catamounts return to non-conference action on Tuesday, April 5 at Garnder-Webb. The match will start at 2:00 p.m. in Boiling Springs, N.C.