ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop men's and women's tennis teams return home on Friday as the Eagles will square off against Coastal Carolina in pivotal matches for the conference standings.
The Winthrop men will look to bounce back from falling in its last match to conference-leading Radford last Sunday. The Eagles (9-12, 2-3) have gotten a lot of production from sophomore
Yuta Hirokawa, who is 12-7 on the season in singles, and freshman
Dylan Comerford, who holds a 10-7 mark overall singles record.
Last season, the Eagles defeated Coastal Carolina 5-2 in Conway, but this season, the Chanticleers possess a strong 11-3 overall record and a 3-1 mark in the conference. CCU spilt its last two conference matches, as the Chanticleers fell 6-1 to Radford, but defeated Presbyterian College 4-3 in Conway on Sunday. Coastal is led by Garik Yedigarian and Yusuke Kusuda, who hold matching 9-2 records in singles action this season.
The women's squad is currently tied with Coastal Carolina (13-3, 5-0) for the top spot in the conference. Winthrop (10-10, 6-0) nabbed two victories last week, sweeping Liberty 7-0 on Saturday, and cruising over Radford 6-1 on Sunday. Dating back to last season, Winthrop is riding an eight-match regular season winning streak. The last team to defeat the Eagles was Coastal on April 3, 2011 in Conway. Winthrop avenged that loss by eliminating the Chanticleers in the conference championship match to advance to the NCAA Tournament, 4-1.
Winthrop has gotten productive from the entire roster this season, as
Yasmine Alkema,
Andressa Garcia and Giovanna Portioli all have perfect 6-0 records in singles play for the conference. The Eagles have also dropped just one doubles match in the conference this season, tallied a 17-1 record as a team in the doubles round.
The Chanticleers have two players that have totaled 10 or more wins on the season, as Katie Fosnacht and Diana Mortlock have 11 and 10 victories on the season, respectively. CCU's No. 3 doubles tandem of Maria Hesketh and Kourtney Kowal carries a 9-2 record, the fourth best doubles record in the conference.
The doubles round for both matches is set for 2 p.m. and admission is free. Tune into winthropeagles.com for a Live Chat of all the tennis action starting around 1:45 p.m.
