Eblen finishes second in flight as Spartans open fall season

WILMINGTON, NC - UNC Greensboro's Jess Eblen finished second in the Navy Flight to highlight UNCG's opening weekend of action at the Landfall-UNCW Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament.

After an opening round bye, Eblen topped Hartley Collins of UNC Wilmington in straight sets, 6-4 and 6-3. However, she fell in Saturday's final to East Tennessee State's Olya Batsula, 6-1 and 6-1.

Fellow Spartan Courtney Akel went 1-1 in the same bracket, losing to East Tennessee State's Andrea Voinea in the opening round before defeating Elon's Whitney Butcher, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7), in a consolation bracket match.

In the Teal Flight, Valerie Behr lost a pair of matches, falling to Virginia's Maggie Yahner, 6-4 and 6-4, and East Carolina's Jessica Cook, 6-3 and 6-2.

Behr and Eblen won the consolation bracket of the Teal Flight in doubles action. After falling to Batsula and Yevgeniya Stupak of East Tennessee State, 8-7, in the opening round, they won the next two matches. The duo first topped Andrea Shutte and Amanda Swindall of Charleston Southern, 8-4. Then, the Spartan tandem topped Kayla Schwenk and Melissa Wolf of UNC Wilmington by an 8-6 score.

UNCG returns to action in two weeks when the Spartans play at the UVA Fall Invitational in Charlottesville, VA.

- UNCG -