by Benny Benton
SUMTER, S.C. – The best women's tennis season since 2006 for Barton College came to an end Friday in the first round of the Conference Carolinas Tournament when the No.4 seed Lady Bulldogs lost a narrow 5-4 decision to No. 5 seed University of Mount Olive at the Palmetto Tennis Center.
Barton's season was stopped at 13-7. Mount Olive, which exacted revenge for a 5-4 loss of its own to the Lady Bulldogs in the regular season, advanced to Saturday's semifinals against No. 1 Erskine with a 12-7 mark.
The Lady Bulldogs trailed 2-1 after doubles play. The duo of Meredith Pruden and Alicia Lasry won its match in the No. 2 slot for Barton by a 9-7 margin, but Randi Price and Caroline Fischer were beaten for just the second time this season as a tandem at No. 3, 8-6, and the No. 1 team of Smiljana Kljajic and Ananya Sarkar was easily defeated, 8-2, by Mount Olive's top pair of Francesca Ceppi and Roxanne Chouinard.
Price and Fischer bounced back to post singles wins, Price taking her match, 7-5, 6-3, and Fischer claiming her contest, 6-0, 7-5. Pruden also won her match, 6-1, 6-3, and finished the season with a team-best 16-3 singles record.
However, the top three flights – and the victory – went to the Trojans. Ceppi defeated Klajic at No. 1, 6-2, 6-4, and Chouinard took out Lasry at No. 3, 6-1, 6-0. Sarkar forced a first-set tiebreaker in her match, but fell 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 to Mount Olive's Alejandra Hernandez.
The loss was the fourth by Barton to Mount Olive in the first round of the conference tournament since 2008, but Friday's was the first in which the Lady Bulldogs were the higher seed.
