Box Score

KENNESAW, Ga. – The No. 5 seeded Kennesaw State women’s tennis team lost its first round match in the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship to the No. 4 seed Stetson, 4-0, on Thursday morning.

The loss ends the Owls season with an 18-6 record, while the win improves the Hatters to 17-5 and it sets them up with a semifinal matchup against No. 1 seeded East Tennessee State. The loss also marks the second consecutive season that the Owls have lost in the first round of the A-Sun Championship as they lost 4-2 to Campbell last season. 

“I am obviously disappointed with the result today, but I was happy with the girls’ effort and the way they competed in the match,” head coach Jeffery Kutac said. “I think we did a very good job progressing and getting better throughout the season, but now we need to focus on bringing in some talented players for next season to try to replace our departing seniors in Agatha and Ayano.”

The match started off with some very intense doubles play from both schools. With the Black and Gold trailing 1-0 in the doubles point, the No. 2 doubles team of junior Morgan Carney and freshman Alexandra Apostu came up with a huge 8-1 win to tie the doubles point at 1-1. Unfortunately for the Owls, senior Agatha Palider and sophomore Therese Lagerkvist couldn’t pull out their match at the No. 3 spot as they lost 8-4 to drop the doubles point.

In singles play, junior Mackenzie Swindall lost her match at the No. 6 position 6-0, 6-0, and Lagerkvist also fell at the No. 4 spot 6-3, 6-3, to make the overall score of the match, 3-0, in favor of Stetson.

Palider fought hard at the No. 3 position, but she couldn’t come back against Stetson’s Shannon Gunning falling 6-3, 6-1. Palider’s loss made the match score 4-0, and because of conference rules the match had to be stopped. This match was the final one for Palider and senior Ayano Tanaka in their terrific careers at Kennesaw State.

Junior Vera Shkundina was the lone Owl to win her first set as she was up on Stetson’s Carolina D.L. Santos at the No. 1 spot 6-4, 3-2 when the match was stopped.

Even with the loss the Black and Gold have plenty of reasons to hold their heads high as they set program records this season for most overall and conference wins in a single season with 18 and seven, respectively.