The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga dropped its first home match of the season against UAB tonight at The McCallie School. UTC (0-2) was able to gain wins at No.1 doubles and No.3 singles, but fell 4-1 in the match.

The duo of Kayla Jones and Kelsey Coots got the 6-3 win at the No.1 doubles spot over UAB's Pardis Kianoush and Elaine Simon, while the Blazers secured the two other doubles wins at No.2 and No.3 to go up 1-0 in the match.

"Kayla and Kelsey are a great team of two seniors that are great doubles players," head coach Jeff Clark said. "They got off to a slow start but they have the confidence that if they can play their game, they can be there in the end, so they made a nice turnaround."

Sophomore Samantha Caswell showed a strong performance in singles competition,as she put UTC on the board with a 6-3, 6-1 win over UAB's McKenna Root.

"Samantha played a really solid match against a very good player," Clark said. "Her opponent has had some really good results this year. She just found her rhythm in the middle of the first set, didn't panic and it was nice to see her really run away with that match. She won nine out of the last 12 games, so that was a good effort."

The Mocs saw first-set tiebreakers in the No.1, No. 2 and No.3 singles, but dropped three out of four matches with two unfinished.

"I like the fact that we have to play tomorrow," Clark said. "We have another good opponent in an in-state rival with Tennessee coming up and we're very excited to play tomorrow. We've got to turn the page very quickly and we can come back stronger."

The Mocs return to McCallie tomorrow, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m. (E.S.T.) for a big match against Tennessee. A link for live scoring is on the women's tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com.  

University of Alabama at Birmingham 4, Chattanooga 1

Jan. 30, 2016 at Chattanooga, Tenn. (The McCallie School)

Doubles competition

1. Kayla Jones/Kelsey Coots (UTC) def. Pardis Kianoush/Elaine Simon (UAB) 6-3

2. Reghan Lynch/Elaine Simon (UAB) def. Samantha Caswell/Rachele Gazzola (UTC) 6-4

3. McKenna Root/Catherine Ragon (UAB) def. Katie Polk/Sydney Patton (UTC) 6-2

Singles competition

1. Pardis Kianoush - Kayla Jones 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, unfinished

2. Elaine Simon (UAB) - Kelsey Coots (UTC) 7-6 (11-9), 0-6, 1-0 unfinished

3. Samantha Caswell (UTC) def. McKenna Root (UAB) 6-3, 6-1

4. Catherine Ragon (UAB) def. Alison Storie (UTC) 6-1, 6-1

5. Sophie Dodds (UAB) def. Rachele Gazzola (UTC) 6-2, 6-3

6. Gabrielle Paul (UAB) def. Sydney Patton (UTC) 7-6 (8-6), 6-4

Match Notes

Chattanooga 0-2

UAB 1-2

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (3,5,4,6)