by Doug Page
FLORENCE, S.C. – The Barton College women's tennis team dropped a pair of matches on Saturday at the City of Florence College Tennis Invitational. BC finished on the wrong side of a 5-0 score to start the day against Palm Beach Atlantic and dropped a tightly contested 5-3 decision against Conference Carolinas foe, the University of Mount Olive.
The No. 1 doubles tandem of junior Daria Avram and sophomore Marissa Stevenson tallied a pair of points for Barton (0-2) against Palm Beach Atlantic's Taylor Conti and Yuliia Russu. Conti and Russu were victorious in their match, 8-2.
BC's No. 2 duo of Vanessa Sanoja and Ada Vargas also dropped an 8-2 decision against PBA's Laura Andersen and Johanna Kern. Barton's No. 3 tandem of Claudia Capellades and Whitney Hamilton saw Michaela Mignemi and Romina Bolagay take an 8-1 decision as the Sailfish would leave the Lady Bulldogs trailing 3-0 in the match after doubles play.
Palm Beach Atlantic (1-1) quickly swept through a pair of singles matches to complete the victory. Mignemi defeated Vargas, 6-1, 6-0 at the No. 4 position, while Bolagay handed Capellades a 6-2, 6-0 defeat at the No. 5 position. Barton held a pair of leads at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. Avram held a 6-4 advantage against Vanessa Buchbinder and Sanoja held a 6-5 lead against Nicole Reich before both would be halted under the tournament format once the victory was clinched for PBA.
Later in the day, the Lady Bulldogs would find themselves matched up against conference for Mount Olive. Though the match didn't count towards league play, BC was able to get an informative read on its conference rival. In the end, the Trojans would come away with the 5-3 victory to hand BC its third loss of the season.
Barton's No. 2 duo of Vargas and Sanoja were victorious for the Lady Bulldogs as the pair earned a 9-7 decision to knot the match 1-1. Barton's No. 3 tandem of Capellades and Hamilton were the first to finish, dropping an 8-4 decision to the Trojans. With the match tied and only one doubles match left to play, the top duo of Avram and Stevenson battled against UMO before dropping a tightly contested 9-8 (7) decision to give the Trojans a 2-1 lead after the completion of doubles play.
The Lady Bulldogs recorded a pair of victories in singles play at the No. 2 and No. 4 positions. Stevenson earned a 6-2, 6-3 win for BC in the No. 2 spot, while Vargas notched a 7-5, 6-4 win in the No. 4 spot.
Mount Olive recorded victories at the No. 1, No. 5, and No. 6 positions en route to securing the victory. Sonja Gaerener defeated Avram 6-2, 6-2 in the top singles match, while Jenny Byrd outlasted Capellades 6-4, 5-6, 6-3 at the No. 3 position. Emma Burroughs defeated Hamilton 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 6 position for UMO.
Barton welcomes Francis Marion University for a non-conference matchup on Feb. 10 beginning at 12 p.m. and Methodist on Feb. 11 beginning at 2 p.m.
