SCF Tennis @ Broward Recap

The SCF tennis team (6-6, 4-5 Region 8) pulled away with their first sweep in conference as they defeated Broward College (2-7, 2-6 Region 8) 6-3. With the win, the Manatees are now 9-6 against the Seahawks.

"Super proud of the girls today," said head coach Chloe Murphy. "This win was all heart, Broward played very well today. "

Beginning with doubles play, the team of freshman Sara Ramirez-Goncalves (4-7) and sophomore Sara Jamal fell 8-2 to freshmen Dyane Barcena Del Bosque and Angela Rinaldi at #1 doubles. After sophomore Diarra Thomas and freshman Britain Botsford (6-5) defeated sophomores Iris Leder and Bar Shimoni 8-6 at #3 doubles, the duo of freshman Zeba Jamal and sophomore Camille Portalier (4-7) defeated juniors Aubrey Eckstrom and Maddy Knoll 8-6.

"Court one just had a tough day," said Murphy on the team's doubles performance. "BC came out and to be honest just took the racquet out of our hand. Court 2 played some solid doubles and did a great job holding their nerve and clinching the 2nd doubles point. Brie and D again did a great job getting themselves the W today and closing out their match."

Heading into singles, Ramirez-Goncalves (9-1) made short work of Vanessa Cozamanis at #3 singles as she won 6-2, 2-1, but the Seahawks would answer back and tie the matchup after Del Bosque defeated Zeba Jamal (4-7) 6-2, 6-1 at #1 singles and Botsford (7-5) falling to Leder 6-4, 6-0 at #5 singles.

In retaliation, the Manatees would regain the lead after sophomore Laura Illanes-Rodriguez (7-4) defeated Shimoni 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 at #6 singles before Sara Jamal (6-6) defeated Rinaldi 6-4, 7-6 (6) to clinch the main point for the win at #2 singles.

"Singles across the board was a good day for us today, winning 4/6 singles matches and 2 in 3 set battles," said Murphy on the team's singles performance. "Super happy for Sara Jamal getting to clinch the match for us today, she fought hard today and really came up big for the team. Laura got a big win at 6 singles especially when she lost to the same player 3 weeks ago."

In the final match, Portalier (5-7) defeated Leali 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 for the final match.

"Camille fought through her 3 set match not playing particularly great tennis but just being a warrior on the court and Sara R got back in the W column with a convincing win today, she played a great match today only dropping 3 games," Murphy added.

The Manatees remain in fourth behind SPC in the Region 8 Conference

Up Next:
The Manatees look to close the regular season with their final road trip as they face #1 ASA Miami (14-3, 4-1 Region 8) on Saturday, April 6 at 11 am. This will be the final matchup before the start of the FCSAA State/NJCAA Region Tournament with ASA Miami being the #1 team in the nation.

"We opened conference play against ASA, that feels like a lifetime ago and 100% we are a much better team now than we were then," said Murphy on playing ASA. "ASA is ranked 1 in the Nation for a reason and we love being the underdog."

"Tomorrow our job is to make it a battle on every court, the bigger they are the harder they fall. I'm excited to see the improvements we have made as a whole and looking to finish out conference strong."