Athens, TN - Facing their first top-ten opponent of the season, the eighth-ranked UC women's tennis team won four straight singles matches to defeat ninth-ranked Tennessee Wesleyan 5-2 Thursday afternoon. With win is the Patriots second straight win over a ranked opponent while extending their win streak to six consecutive as Cumberlands improves to 9-1 overall.
 
Doubles play began with the Patriots in the lead as the #3 duo of Fan Shiau and Marina Nagai posted a 6-1 win to give the UC the advantage. Tennessee Wesleyan evened the doubles at 1-1 after a 6-1 win at #2 doubles.  #1 doubles was an evenly contested match throughout with both teams trading points.  The two teams traded points until UC evened the score at 6-6 forcing a tiebreaker, however, the Bulldogs took the tiebreaker 7-4  to secure the win and th early 1-0 lead.
 
The Patriots responded in singles play winning four straight and five of the six matches overall.  Fan Shiau used straight sets to defeat Mercedes Chasset 6-1, 6-0 at #4 singles to even the score at 1-1. After an exchange of points, Meiri Okuwaki extended the lead to 2-1 as she defeated Olivia Alcala at #1 singles in straight sets 7-5, 6-2.
 
Following this, Laura Prieto won her match at #2 singles in three sets to extend the Pats lead to 3-1. Prieto took the first set 8-6, before Josefa Fernandez took the second stanza 6-3 to force a decisive third  The duo traded points early before Prieto closed out the set and match 6-2.
 
Mikaela Fros clinched the match for UC by taking down the #6 singles player for Tennessee Wesleyan, Astrid Stakrud. The UC graduate student took the first set 6-1. The players then traded points until Fros pulled away to take the set 6-3 and clinch the match as Cumberlands took a 4-1 advantage.
 
The Bulldogs posted a three-set win at #3 singles, before the Patriots closed out the match with a straight set win at #5 singles.  Catherine Rae defeated Canadas 6-4, 7-5 for the 5-2 victory. 
 
The Patriots will return to the court on  Saturday, March 18th as the team finished their road trip by heading to take on the #21 Campbellsville Tigers  at 1:00 PM.
 
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