Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

Sumter, SC| The Young Harris College women's tennis team battled the University of Mount Olive Trojans in round one of the Conference Carolinas women's tennis championship on Friday (Apr. 26) morning and took down the Spartans swiftly to advance to the next round later in the day. The Mountain Lions took on Barton College in the Quarterfinals, with the Bulldogs being the number three seed in the tournament and were 15-3 overall coming into the match. By the day's end, Young Harris had taken down Barton 4-3, a major program victory, that advances YHC to the Conference Carolinas women's tennis championship Semifinals. 

QUOTING HEAD COACH MARCY O'CONNOR: Following the Barton College Match

"The Girls battled so hard today. Girls went down 0-1 after the doubles. Viviana brought us to 1-2 with a tough win, Meghna won her match and two sets bringing the team to 2-3 with Luciana pulling out her match in two sets tying the overall score to 3-3 overall." 

Continuing, "match came down to Emily's and she was able to pull out an amazing win in three sets to clinch it for the girls! Our girls fought through so much adversity and had so much heart and grit! I'm so proud of how hard they fought today! Two hard earned wins!" 

INSIDE THE MATCH: 

Match One: YHC 4, UMO 1 

• Mount Olive earned the double point, winning doubles matches with their pairings of Simone Szovan and Jessica Aylward (7-5) and Alina Esser and Valeria Guerrero (6-4). 

• In singles matches, it was the Mountain Lions who dominated, sweeping UMO in the four singles matches that finished, as the other two matches ended up in DNF's. 

• Luciana Bejarano defeated her opponent Victoria Calle (7-6 and 6-4), and Viviana Gomez took down Szovan (6-4 and 6-3). To earn the first two YHC points. 

• Meghna Mallath won her singles match over Sara Gajbhiye (6-4 and 6-4), and Catarina Marcko Ferreira took down Esser (6-2 and 6-4). 

• Simone Mercier and Emily Bush's singles matches did not finish, but Mercier was in line for the victory in the third set, winning (3-6, 7-5, and 5-1), while Bush had just begun her third set and was deadlocked in round three (6-4, 6-7, and 1-1). 

Match Two: YHC 4, Barton 3 

• Again, the opposing team earned the doubles point over Young Harris, with the Bulldogs' pairings of Silvia Fernandez-Trabadelo and Alexandra Saez Lozano (6-2) and Ruya Mavi and Leonie Hellum-Lilleengen (6-2) earning wins. Young Harris did take down the 2024 Conference Carolinas women's tennis player of the year, Tilde Howeler, and her doubles partner Irma Granstam, with the Mountain Lions powerhouse pairing of Meghna Mallath and Emily Bush (5-4). 

• Howler took down Simone Mercier in singles (6-3 and 7-6), and Claudia Zaratiegui Marquez defeated Catarina Marcko Ferreira (6-4 and 6-3). 

• Viviana Gomez beat her opponent Hellum-Lilleengen (6-3 and 6-4), and Meghna Mallath earned another point for YHC taking down Saez Lozano (6-1 and 7-6). 

• Luciana Bejarano defeated Mavi (6-2 and 7-5) to earn the first two Mountain Lions points. 

• With the match tied 3-3, Emily Bush took down Fernandez-Trabadelo (2-6, 6-1, and 6-4), clinching the victory for the Mountain Lions in the third set, to advance the Mountain Lions to the Semifinals 

UP NEXT: 
The Mountain Lions women's tennis team will play the second seeded Erskine Flying Fleet at 2 p.m. on Saturday (Apr. 27) afternoon at the Palmetto Tennis Center in the Semifinals. 

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