SCF Tennis @ Eastern Florida State Recap

The SCF tennis team (4-5, 3-4 Region 8) pulled away with their second straight win in conference play as they defeated Eastern Florida State (3-5, 1-4 Region 8) by a score of 7-2 at the Titan Tennis Center in Melbourne. With the win, the Manatees are now 8-4 against the Titans.

"I'm extremely proud of the whole team and every single girl that contributed to this win," said head coach Chloe Murphy. "Teams energy and support for each other was first class."

Beginning with doubles, the team of sophomore Diarra Thomas and freshman Britain Botsford (4-4) pulled away with a quick 8-1 win over freshmen Zoe Hanson and Chengeto Moyana at #3 doubles. After the duo of sophomore Sara Jamal and freshman Sara Ramirez-Goncalves (3-5) fell 8-6 to the team of sophomore Vasavi Ganesan and freshman Tsveti Trifonova at #1 doubles, freshman Zeba Jamal and sophomore Camille Portalier (3-5) went on to defeat sophomores Emma Othmer and Valeria Arevalo 8-6 before heading to singles.

"Great team win and another solid doubles performance winning 2 out of 3 doubles matches," said Murphy. "Cami and Zeba really stepped up in doubles today winning the last doubles to make it 2-1 going into singles."

Heading into singles, sophomore Laura Illanes-Rodriguez (4-4) would pull away with a 6-0 pair decision over Hanson at #6 singles before Botsford (5-4) would then follow Illanes-Rodriguez with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Othmer at #5 singles.

With the score 4-2 in favor of the Manatees, Ramirez-Goncalves (7-0) would seal the deal with a 6-2 pair decision over Moyana to give the Manatees the win at #3 singles.

"Sara got the job done today," said Murphy on Ramirez-Goncalves. "She was a little impatient the start of the match but she made the adjustments, played smart tennis and got the clinch for us."

Both teams decided to finish the rest of the matches as Zeba Jamal (2-6) defeated Ganesan 6-2, 7-6 (5) at #1 singles.

Meanwhile at #4 singles, Portalier was in a super tie break with Arevalo as both teams continued to fight tooth and nail in the third set. The third set seemed too much for Portalier (3-6) as she fell to Arevalo 5-7, 6-0, 14-16 to give the Titans their second point of the matchup.

The final match came down to Sara Jamal (4-5) claiming the final match with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Trifonova.

"In singles, Zeba & Sara Jamal really stood out," said Murphy on the Jamal sisters. "They lost pretty heavily to the same players only 3 weeks ago, but made the adjustments today and got the well deserved win."

Up Next:

The Manatees return home for another matchup against an NCAA team as they welcome NCAA DIII St. Catherine University (5-3, 2-3 MIAC) to the SCF Tennis Complex on Wednesday, March 27 at 4 pm.

"Every match is going to be a tough match," said Murphy. "We expect a fight every time, so we're ready to bring it."