Complete Results

CLINTON, S.C. - The Western Carolina women's tennis team dropped a heartbreaker at Presbyterian College Friday afternoon. The Catamounts fell 4-3 after having to forfeit the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles matches due to only having five players. Senior Megan McLinden extended her winning streak to seven-straight singles victories including five-straight at No. 1.

"That was a tough one to lose today," said Western Carolina head coach Michaela Kissell-Eddins. "We didn't play as good of doubles as we would've liked on court two, but everyone turned it around to compete really well in singles. Overall, we can't hang our heads about the match. Of the seven matches we played (2 doubles, 5 singles) we won four of them. Hopefully this experience motivates our girls even more and we come out tomorrow and Sunday ready to play hard and keep getting better."

WCU opened the match with an 8-1 win at No.1 doubles as McLinden and junior Shannon Bettiol teamed up to down Brittany Nuttall and Claire-Mitchell Andrews in the match. Juniors Nicole Nielly and Erin Maguire dropped the No. 2 doubles match 8-3 to Caroline deLoach and Sara McBride to give PC the doubles point.

Bettiol was first to finish in singles as she cruised in her No. 2 match against Andrews winning 6-1, 6-0. Bettiol is now 5-5 in singles play this season including 4-3 at No. 2. Bettiol needs just one more singles win this season to match her six wins from last season.

Freshman Montse Mesalles tied the overall match at two as she took home the No. 5 singles match 6-0, 6-4 over Madison Utberg. The win was Mesalles' third of the season and second in the No. 5 slot.

McLinden then gave WCU its first and only lead of the match as she closed out the No. 1 singles match over Nuttall 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. It was McLinden's third three-set match this season. She is now 3-0 in three-set affairs. The win was also her eighth of the season which surpasses her seven from last season.

Up 3-2 with two singles matches to play, WCU was unable to close out the Blue Hose as PC took both the No. 3 and No. 4 singles matches. Nielly fell at No. 3 to deLoach in a three-set thriller. She dropped the first set 7-5 before taking the second set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (5). In the third and deciding set, deLoach took control and won 6-1.

Maguire also went three sets as she fell at No. 4 to Sara McBride. McBride took the first set 6-3, then Maguire won the second set 6-3 before falling in the third set 6-3.

WCU is now 3-7 this season while PC improved to 11-4.

The Catamounts will not have much time to dwell on the loss as they get right back to action tomorrow, March 21. WCU will host ETSU at 2 pm in its second Southern Conference match of the season. The Catamounts are 1-0 in conference play after defeating Mercer earlier this season.