CHARLESTON, S.C. - Charleston Southern advances to the Big South Women's Tennis Championships semifinals tomorrow afternoon as the No. 1 Buccaneers take on No. 5 Coastal Carolina at the Webb Tennis Complex with first serve in doubles action set for 2:30 p.m.
Both teams advanced to the semifinal round courtesy of quarterfinal wins on Wednesday morning as Charleston Southern topped No. 8 Gardner-Webb 4-0, while Coastal Carolina upset No. 4 Campbell, 4-3, to advance.
Charleston Southern took the doubles point from the Runnin' Bulldogs to open the match as All-Conference doubles tandem of Alexandra Walters and Yvonne Hubler defeated Yasmin Doost and Ronia Hutterli on court no. 1, 8-6. Nicolin Luecke and Marketa Placha opened the contest with an 8-1 win on court no. 3 to open the CSU momentum.
In singles play, Placha, the 2014 Big South Player of the Year, was the first off the court with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Doost, while Luecke put the CSU advantage to 3-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Valeria Popko on court no. 4. Hubler clinched the Charleston Southern advance with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Lunde on court no. 2.
Coastal Carolina advances to face the Buccaneers despite nearly giving up a 3-1 advantage over the Camels in the other quarterfinal match played Wednesday morning as Kourtney Kowal pushed the Chanticleers over the top in the match's deciding point in the CCU 4-3 win.
The Chants took the doubles point to open the match play with wins on courts no. 1 and 3, and added singles wins on courts 2 and 6 to build a 3-1 advantage. Campbell nearly brought it all the way back with wins on courts 1 and 5, before Kowal clinched the Coastal Carolina victory in a three-set thriller over Ana Maria Ortiz, winning 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 on the afternoon.
The Thursday match between Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina will be the second time the Bucs and Chants have faced off against each other in the past eight days as CSU hosted CCU at the Buccaneer Tennis Complex last Wednesday for Senior Day.
Charleston Southern sent seniors Walters, Alia Nour and Shanetta Wilkins off on a high note as the Buccaneers swept all three doubles matches and five of the six singles competitions in taking the 6-1 matchup against the Chants.
Amanda Malatek took the lone point in the match for Coastal Carolina against the Buccaneers with a victory on court no. 5 over Mi'Kola Cooper, while Placha, Hubler, Walters, Luecke and Nour all recorded singles wins for CSU.
This is the 12th trip to the Big South semifinals for the Buccaneers, while Coastal makes their 20th appearance in program history.
Friday's championship match will pit the winner of Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina against the winner of No. 2 Winthrop and No. 3 Liberty/No. 6 Radford. First serve in doubles play is set for 2:30 p.m. at the Webb Tennis Complex.
