EMBRY-RIDDLE
(0-0) RANK: 7th
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Feb. 8, 2014 • Daytona Beach, Fla. • St. Thomas Courts
All-Time Series Record: ERAU leads 16-0
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MATCH CENTRAL
Embry-Riddle vs. St. Thomas
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014
CITY: Miami, Fla.
SITE: STU Courts
TIME: 1 p.m.
SERIES: ERAU leads 16-0
LAST MEETING: ERAU def. St. Thomas, 8-1, March 17, 2013
FIRST SERVE
• Embry-Riddle and St. Thomas are meeting in women's tennis for the 17th time.
• Saturday's match is the Eagles' first action of the season as their original season opener was rescheduled due to rain.
• Embry-Riddle Women's Tennis is now in its 15th season of competition
• Dave Paschal is in his 10th season as the Eagles' head coach
• Embry-Riddle and St. Thomas are meeting in women's tennis for the 17th time.
THE EAGLES
The Embry-Riddle women's tennis team will be looking for its first action of the 2014 season. The Eagles' season opener against Tampa was curtailed and rescheduled due to rain.
ST. THOMAS
St. Thomas returns all six starters from last season's 6-9 squad, including 2012 ITA/NAIA national singles runner-up Tetiana Kovalska.
Kovalska is ranked seventh in the ITA/NAIA preseason singles poll. She and her fellow senior Gabriela Bongiovanni are rated 13th the national doubles poll.
THE ERAU –STU SERIES
Saturday's contest marks the 17th meeting between the Embry-Riddle and St. Thomas women's tennis teams. The Eagles hold a decisive 16-0 lead in the all-time series against the Bobcats, including a 8-1 decision in the last meeting between the two schools on March 7, 2013.
In addition to facing each other in team competition, student-athletes from the Embry-Riddle and St. Thomas women's tennis teams have also faced off in ITA regional and national singles and doubles competition. In 2012, STU's Tetiana Kovalska topped ERAU's Hui-I Huang to claim the regional singles crown.
This past fall Kovalska and teammate Gabriela Bongiovanni, as well as Huang and Kristina Marova earned bids to the ITA/NAIA National Small College Championship. The ERAU and STU duos had to battle each other in a play-in game to move into the main draw of the tournament. The match went to Huang and Marova who bested Kovalska and Bongiovanni 6-4, 6-4 to advance.
THE LAST MEETING
The seventh-ranked Embry-Riddle women's tennis team earned its fourth conference win of the year with an 8-1 defeat of No. 21 St. Thomas, Thursday at the Crotty Tennis Complex. Freshman Hui-I Huang recorded a three-set upset of second-ranked Tetiana Kovalska to help the Eagles improve to 4-5 overall and 4-1 in Sun Conference play.
The Eagles picked up two early points in doubles play as Ana Gonzalez-Hoy and Meena Bennett defeated Lauren Lightfoot and Brigitte Bustamante 8-1 at the third spot and Paola Montero and Giovanna Tomiotto downed Monica Rekkedal and Ashley Ahern 8-2 at No. 2.
At No. 1 doubles, fourth-ranked Kristina Marova and Huang went up 6-5 against STU's 12th-ranked pair of Kovalska and Gabriella Bongiovani. The Bobcats managed to come back and win the match 9-7 to make the team score 2-1.
The Eagles' first singles point came at the No. 2 spot where Marova took a 4-3 lead and got the win when Bongiovanni had to retire because of an injury. The Eagles got their next point at the No. 3 position where Montero bested Rekkedal 6-2, 6-2 to put the Blue and Gold up 4-1.
Needing to win just one more singles match, the Eagles appeared to have the contest in hand as the first sets in each of the remaining matches went in favor of ERAU. St. Thomas did not back down, however and pushed three of the four remaining matches to third sets.
After downing Ahern 6-2 in the second, Gonzalez-Hoy dropped the second to Lightfoot, 6-4. Down 4-3 in the third, the ERAU freshman fought back to win 6-4 and clinch the Eagle win. Next to Gonzaelz-Hoy on court six, Bennett easily won the first set 6-1, but had to withstand a fierce rally from Bustamante to pull out a second-set victory 7-6 (7-3).
Tomiotto also notched an easy 6-2 win in the first frame, but Ahern battled to a 6-4 win in the second. The third set went back and forth and in the end, Tomiotto fought for the victory, topping Ahern 6-4 at No. 4
The final match on the court was at the top singles spot between seventh-ranked Huang and 2012 ITA/NAIA national singles runner-up Kovalska. Both players faced each other in the championship match of the ITA regional back in November and then, it was Kovalska who won in straight sets to claim the title. Thursday's rematch saw Huang take an early lead, winning the first set 6-2. Kovalska jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second, but Huang showed resiliency by battling back to knot the score at 6-6. Kovalska managed to hold on to win the tiebreaker 7-3, forcing a third set. With the team score already reflecting a victory for ERAU, Huang and Kovalska only needed to play a 10-point tiebreaker in the third and Huang avenged last fall's loss with a 10-6 decision to cap the Eagle scoring.
BY THE NUMBERS
219 - All-time wins in ERAU Women's Tennis history
136 - Eagle victories under guidance of Head Coach Dave Paschal
66 - Conference wins in program history
10 - Seasons of competition with Dave Paschal at the helm
13 - NAIA National Tournament appearances
7 - The Eagles' current national ranking
4 - Regular season conference championships
2 – Conference tournament titles
EAGLES IN THE RANKINGS
The Eagles are ranked seventh in the NAIA Women's Tennis Coaches' Top 25 poll, marking the sixth consecutive season that ERAU Women's Tennis is ranked among the nation's top 10 in the preseason ratings. Two ERAU student-athletes are featured in the ITA/NAIA singles rankings as sophomore Hui-I Huang is ranked ninth and senior Kristina Marova is ranked 27th. Huang and Marova are ranked No. 1 in the national doubles poll.
