KSU vs. BEL Box Score

KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State women’s tennis team began Atlantic Sun Conference play with a big statement on Friday afternoon as it defeated Belmont by a score of 6-1 at the Centennial Sportsplex.

The win improves Kennesaw State to 10-2, 1-0 A-Sun for the season, while the loss drops Belmont to 4-6, 0-1 A-Sun on the year.

Head Coach Jeffery Kutac liked the way his players competed in the match, and was glad to get his first A-Sun win under his belt.

“We are happy to get that first conference win, but we need to use this win to keep improving and getting better,” coach Kutac said. “We played singles first today so our energy level was different, but I thought all the girls played well and competed. Since we clinched the match with five singles wins that made the doubles point a formality, but the No. 1 doubles team of Vera and Iesha fought extremely hard to come back in their match and give us the doubles point.”

With the victory Kennesaw State becomes the first team in the A-Sun to reach ten wins on the season. The Owls have now won ten overall matches for three consecutive seasons.

All three winning streaks remained intact in the Black and Gold’s victory, including junior Vera Shkundina’s singles winning streak.

Shkundina beat Belmont’s Fabiana Mersan 6-2, 6-0 at the No. 1 spot to run her singles streak to ten in a row as she hasn’t lost in singles action since Jan 27.

Sophomore Therese Lagerkvist kept a singles streak of her own intact as well as she won 6-2, 6-2 over Laura Stack at the No. 5 position. Lagerkvist now has a seven-match A-Sun singles winning streak dating back to last season.   

Senior Agatha Palider took one step closer to her 50th singles win in an Owls uniform as she picked up the 47th singles victory of her career in a 6-3, 6-3 win at the No. 4 spot.

In doubles play, the duo of junior Morgan Carney and freshman Alexandra Apostu remained perfect on the year as they now have a record of 9-0 after winning 8-2 at the No. 2 spot.

Kennesaw State looks to move to 2-0 in the A-Sun for the first time in program history when it takes on Lipscomb on Saturday at 6 p.m. (CT).