Cullowhee, N.C. -- Despite gritty efforts across the Catamount Athletics Complex on Wednesday afternoon, the Western Carolina women's tennis team fell to the Mercer Bears (9-4, 1-0 SoCon) 6-1 after several hard-fought battles in both double and singles competition. 

The Catamounts (8-8, 0-2 SoCon) fought hard on the doubles courts and even held leads at one point on both the first and third courts. However, only the pairing of Jade Groen and Madison Schwarz came away with a match victory. The duo on the second court fought to a seven-point tiebreaker with their SoCon foes, eventually stealing a 7-6 (7-3) victory to prevent the doubles sweep. Isabella Sambola and Angela Perez on the first court and Andrea Redondo and Dasha Osadova on the third both fell by scores of 6-4.   

The action for the doubles point proved to be a precursor to similarly tight matches on the singles courts as three separate sets were decided by 6-4 scores. Jade Groen was the beneficiary of one of those tight sets as she powered her way to a straight-set victory on the second singles court after finding herself tied at 4-all. Both Isabella Sambola and Madison Schwarz were pushed to third sets by their opponents where both Catamounts unfortunately dropped their singles bouts. Schwarz match on the fourth court lasted an astounding 2:29 as her opponent Mariella Minetti took a 7-6 (7-5) set three win for the final point of the day.  

Up next on the Catamounts' schedule is a road match at UNCG (2-12; 0-2 SoCon) on Sat., March 16, before returning home for a matchup with UNC Asheville (9-2, 1-0 Big South). The Tuesday (Mar. 19) match is scheduled for a 2 p.m.

Doubles Results 

No. 1-- M. De Diego Quinones/T. Ristic (MER) def. Isabella Sambola/A. Perez (WCU) 6-4 

No. 2 --J. Groen/M. Schwarz (WCU) def. L. Falentin/E. Cosatto (MER) 7-6 (7-3) 

No. 3-- M. Minetti/T. Zivic (MER) def. A. Redondo/d. Osadova (WCU) 6-4 

Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2 

Singles Results 

No. 1 – T. Ristic (MER) def. I. Sambola (WCU) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 

No. 2 – J. Groen (WCU) def. M. De Diego Quinones (MER) 6-3, 6-4 

No. 3 – L. Falentin (MER) def. A. Perez (WCU) 6-4, 6-2 

No. 4 – M. Minetti (MER) def. M. Schwarz (WCU) 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) 

No. 5 – E. Cosatto (MER) def. A. Redondo (WCU) 6-3, 6-2 

No. 6 – T. Zivic (MER) def. D. Osadova (WCU) 6-4, 6-3 

Order of Finish: 6, 5, 2, 3, 1, 4 

For the latest information on Catamount women's tennis, follow @catamounts or @catamountTennis on Twitter or go to www.catamountsports.com. In-match updates are on the Catamount women's tennis official tennis Twitter page.