DELAND, Fla. – The Stetson University women's tennis team continued its hot start to the season and kept its home winning streak intact as the Hatters ended a nine-match losing streak to the University of North Florida (UNF) with a 5-2 victory over the Ospreys on Sunday afternoon at Mandy Stoll Tennis Center in the ASUN conference opener for each squad.
 
Stetson improved to 12-1 in 2022, its best start in over a decade, and is now 10-0 at home as they knocked off the six-time reigning ASUN Champions and the league's preseason poll top pick. Back in 2011, the Hatters began the season 15-1.
 
The loss is the first for UNF (5-8) in league play since April 6, 2019 and the first for Stetson over the Ospreys since April 19, 2014, a 4-3 win in Jacksonville. The Hatters are now 4-17 all-time against UNF and the win was the first for the team in DeLand since March 2, 2008 – a 5-2 win as well.
 
"What a great team effort today," Stetson head coach Travis Sandlant said. "We came out with a bit of passion and belief today. It was a big day for our program. This team has been working extremely hard and I'm glad they finally saw a big reward as a result."
 
The doubles point came down to the No. 3 match between Stetson's Anais Gabriel and Noa Cohen against Summer Yardley and Kendall Nash. The Hatters easily won the No. 2 singles when Nadejda Maslova and Cheri Darley did not drop a game in a 6-0 victory, while North Florida's Kit Gulihur and Ana Paula Melilo took the No. 1 flight, 6-2.
 
Gabrial and Cohen were actually trailing 5-4 in their set and were down 30-15 as North Florida was serving. The pair took the next three points to tie the set, and then easily served to go ahead 6-5. They won 7-5 with an easy break of service to give the Hatters the 1-0 team lead.
 
That momentum seemed to carry over into the singles matches as the Hatters won four of the six first sets.
 
The Hatters flight 3 and 4 matches ended just minutes apart as Darley (No. 3) won 6-3, 6-3, shortly followed by Alanna DiFrancesco's (No. 4) victory, 6-1, 6-4 to give Stetson a 3-0 advantage. Darley improved to 10-1 on the season while DiFrancesco remained unbeaten in singles matches at 12-0.
 
Maslova then secured the match with a 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 1 spot and improved to 8-2 at the flight. With the win in hand, Cohen, who split her first two sets at flight 5, won her match 10-5 in the third and stayed unbeaten on the season at 11-0.
 
That win for Cohen kept the Hatters perfect at 39-0 at the flights 3, 4 and 5 this year, while they have also won the doubles' point in 10 of their 13 matches.
 
Stetson has a busy upcoming week, as the team faces the University of St. Thomas on Tuesday at 11:30 am in Orlando, and then returns home for a pair of ASUN matches over the weekend. The Hatters welcome both Florida Gulf Coast (Friday) and Kennesaw State (Sunday) for league matches that both begin at 10 am.
 

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About Stetson University Athletics: Stetson University's Athletics Program is driven by a shared purpose. It is what inspires, motivates and binds us together. More than a task, a reason for being. THE HATTER PURPOSE is to create and provide an experience of a lifetime through teamwork and relationships to achieve excellence. This purpose is achieved through five Core Values: Communication, Integrity, Excellence, Value People and Commitment. To learn more about the HATS program and our Core Values, visit GoHatters.com/HATS (PDF).

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