Evansville came into today's match at the Kenlake Tennis Center in Aurora, Ky., with a perfect 4-0 mark.  UTC was also undefeated after a pair of 7-0 sweeps over Belmont and Lipscomb to open the spring schedule. 

Junior Jenna Nurik (Roswell, Ga.) and freshman Kaylene Chadwell (Franklin, Tenn.) started off with an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles.  They improved to 10-1 on the season and 3-0 in spring action.  Evansville evened the doubles competition with a win at No. 1.

That left the No. 3 match between the Purple Aces' Aleksandra Dzakula and Jessica Raatz and UTC seniors Charlotte Bossy (Koekelare, Belgium) and Shaina Singh (Vancouver, B.C.) as the decider.  Evansville was up 8-7 and 40-30 before Singh and Bossy fought off match point and force tiebreaker.  The Chattanooga seniors dominated the extra frame 7-1 to win the match and take a 1-0 team lead. 

That same drama extended to three of the first four singles matches.  The only one that wasn't close was senior Emily Hangstefer's (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) match at No. 4.  She defeated Emily Richardson (6-3, 6-1) to improve to 9-1 on the year and give Chattanooga a 2-1 lead. 

Chadwell dropped her first set to Dzakula 7-5 and battled throughout the second frame.  Dzakula would eventually knot the team score at two with a (7-5, 7-5) win. 

The teams were playing on just four courts, so the No. 5 and No. 6 matches started when a court opened up.  Despite being an hour behind the rest of her teammates, Singh was next out with a (6-1, 6-3) win at No. 5, giving the Lady Mocs a 3-2 lead. 

Nurik and sophomore Alexa Flynn (Memphis, Tenn.) were both in three-set matches at No. 1 and No. 3, respectively.  A win in either one would wrap up the team victory. 

After losing her first set 7-5, Flynn found herself down 3-1 in the second frame to Natasha James.  James had numerous ad-points, but Flynn stayed alive and won the game.  She went on to win the set and score a (5-7, 6-4, 6-2) win.  That made the team tally 4-2 as the Lady Mocs took the dual.  Nurik eventually lost her match at No. 1 while Bossy recorded a straight-set win at No. 6 to end the scoring. 

"This was a great win over a really good team," stated head coach Jeff Clark.  "We battled hard at every position and were fortunate to come away with a victory.  We are going to have to continue this same level of play tomorrow when we face Murray State."

Chattanooga is back on the courts tomorrow against the host Racers.  MSU fell to Evansville 6-1 on Friday.  Match time is set for 2:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) and a link for live scoring will be available on the women's tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com. 

Chattanooga 5, Evansville 2
Doubles competition
1. Natsha James/Dora Kotsiou (EVAN) def. Alexa Flynn/Emily Hangstefer (UTC) - 9-7
2. Kaylene Chadwell/Jenna Nurik (UTC) def. Kelsey Costales/Emily Richardson (EVAN) - 8-3
3. Charlotte Bossy/Shaina Singh (UTC) def. Aleksandra Dzakula/Jessica Raatz (EVAN) - 9-8 (7-1)

Singles competition
1. Dora Kotsiou (EVAN) def. Jenna Nurik (UTC) - 4-6, 7-5 (11-9), 6-3
2. Aleksandra Dzakula (EVAN) def. Kaylene Chadwell (UTC) - 7-5, 7-5
3. Alexa Flynn (UTC) def. Natsha James (EVAN) - 5-7, 6-4, 6-2
4. Emily Hangstefer (UTC) def. Emily Richardson (EVAN) - 6-3, 6-1
5. Shaina Singh (UTC) def. Mina Milovic (EVAN) - 6-1, 6-3
6. Charlotte Bossy (UTC) def. Gaby Fifer (EVAN) - 6-2, 6-3