Women's Tennis Knocks Off Belmont to Advance to A-Sun Semifinals

JOHNSON CITY, Tn. – The fourth seeded Campbell University women's tennis team defeated fifth seeded Belmont, 4-2, Thursday morning to advance to the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun Championship, held on the campus of East Tennessee State.

With the win, Campbell improves their record to 14-9 on the season, while Belmont finishes the year with an 8-11 mark.

"It is a great feeling obviously to advance and we were very fortunate today, Belmont came out really strong and captured the doubles point and put us behind. We were able to capture some of the lower points and it ultimately wound up coming down to the last two matches, but there was some good tennis played by both teams and I'm just excited for the girls and excited about the opportunity to play tomorrow," said Campbell head coach David Johnson.

Belmont jumped out to an early lead, taking the doubles point with the duos of Tatiana Pozo/Whitnie Warren and Laura Stack/Lindsay Bennett taking their matches 8-4 and 8-5, respectively. Campbell did earn a doubles victory in the number two position as Blanca Saenz/Anais Gomar defeated Abby Leatherwood/Abigail Hogan, 8-3.

Campbell rallied back in singles coming up with crucial victories in the bottom part of the lineup. Cristina Garcia, Anais Gomar and Liza Bensimon each recorded wins for the Lady Camels. The clinching win for the Camels came in the number two position as Ana Surviladze knocked off Tatiana Pozo, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

"I personally have played Tatiana three times in my college career and I haven't defeated her once so this is obviously big for me and felt good to help out the team," said Surviladze.

Campbell will face top seeded Stetson tomorrow for the first time this season after rain cancelled their regular season match. The higher seeded ETSU now faces the defending champions, the Jacksonville Dolphins in a Friday morning meeting.

Tennis Match Results

Campbell vs Belmont

Apr 16, 2009 at Johnson City, Tenn.

(Buddy Hartsell Tennis Center)

Campbell 4, Belmont 2

Singles competition

1. Blanca Saenz (CAM-W) vs. Whitnie Warren (BEL) no result

2. Ana Surviladze (CAM-W) def. Tatiana Pozo (BEL) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4

3. Abby Leatherwood (BEL) def. Borislava Nikolova (CAM-W) 7-6 (7-4), 6-0

4. Cristina Garcia (CAM-W) def. Abigail Hogan (BEL) 6-4, 6-3

5. Anais Gomar (CAM-W) def. Lindsay Bennett (BEL) 6-4, 0-6, 6-1

6. Liza Bensimon (CAM-W) def. Lauren Irick (BEL) 6-1, 6-1