DeLand, Fla. ? The Atlantic Sun Conference regular season co-champion Stetson women's tennis team (13-6) saw its seven-match winning streak come to an end in a 5-2 loss to visiting UCF (11-9) Saturday afternoon at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center. Juniors Valentina Galbarini (Montevideo, Uruguay) and Breanna Atkinson (Bradenton, Fla.) earned wins at #1 and #2 singles for the Hatters.
Galbarini defeated Jenny Frisell 6-2, 4-6, 11-9 in a long and hard-fought match at the top of the lineup while Atkinson made much quicker work of Elvira Serrot at #2 singles, defeating her 6-3, 6-4. The singles wins were a small measure of revenge for the #1 doubles match in which Frisell and Serrot, the nation's 50th-ranked duo, outlasted Galbarini and sophomore Unnati Purushotham (Hyderabad, India) 8-5.
UCF won all five of the remaining singles matches with only Stetson freshman Shannon Gunning (Boca Raton, Fla.) managing to take her fifth singles opponent, Katie Orletsky, into a third set tiebreaker. Gunning and senior Katherine St. Clair (Palm Beach, Fla.) won their #3 doubles match 9-8 over Orletsky and Christy Core, but it was not enough to stop the Knights from taking the doubles point and later, the match itself.
The Hatters conclude the regular season Monday at 2:30 p.m. in a home match against Marquette. St. Clair and fellow senior Samantha Lange (Middle Island, N.Y.) will be stepping onto the courts at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center for the final time.
