Box Score

KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State women’s tennis team started fast, but couldn’t keep its momentum as it fell to East Tennessee State, 5-2, on senior day at the Laurel Park Tennis Center.

The loss drops the Owls to 17-5 (6-3 A-Sun) for the year, and they now sit in fifth place in the conference standings, while the win improves the Buccaneers to 11-6 (8-1 A-Sun) on the season.

The Black and Gold seemed to come out with a little extra hop in their step in doubles play after seniors Agatha Palider and Ayano Tanaka were honored in a pregame ceremony. Freshman Alexandra Apostu and junior Morgan Carney took care of business at the No. 2 spot winning 8-5 to give KSU its first doubles win. With the doubles point tied at 1-1, the team of Palider and sophomore Therese Lagerkvist stormed back from a late-match deficit to pull out an exciting 9-8 win in a tiebreak at the No. 3 position.

Unfortunately, the Owls couldn’t maintain their momentum into singles as they would lose five of the six singles matches to the Bucs. Kennesaw State’s lone singles win came at the No. 1 spot as junior Vera Shkundina battled back after losing her first set to win 6-7, 6-2, 1-0 over ESTU’s Kelly Holtzhausen. The Ufa, Russia native now leads the team in singles wins with 17, and she has also now won five matches in a row.

Kennesaw State will now travel to Mercer on April 9 in hopes of improving its seed in the A-Sun Championship as the Bears will be the Owls final 2011 regular season opponent.