For a second straight year, the Covenant women's tennis team saw its season come to an end with a loss to Meredith in the USA South tournament. The Lady Scots fell 7-2 to the Avenging Angels on Friday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the USA South tournament in Rocky Mount.
Covenant ends its season with a 12-7 overall record. The Lady Scots have compiled 28 wins over the last two years, the most in program history over a two-year stretch. Meredith (13-5) moves on to Saturday's semifinal against top-seeded North Carolina Wesleyan.
In a tightly contested doubles round, Meredith managed to take two of the three matches. Gracie Smith and Jennie Spielman tallied the lone victory for Covenant with an 8-4 win at the No. 3 spot. At No. 1, Gretchen Rowe and Claire Luger fell 8-6 while Annie DeLuca and Lindsay Geving dropped a 9-7 decision at the No. 2 spot.
In singles play, Geving accounted for the second Covenant point with a 6-2, 4-6, 11-9 victory over Jacqueline Benton at the No. 5 position. Smith also went three sets at No. 4 before falling 1-6, 6-2, 10-2 to Cailin Goff.
At No. 1, Rowe dropped a 6-0, 6-3 decision to Catherine Bryant. Rowe finishes her collegiate career with 26 singles victories in dual matches, tied for second-most in program history. Smith also has 26 career singles wins through her first two years.
The men's tennis team was poised for an upset of third-seed Huntingdon in the USA South tournament quarterfinal round, but the Scots came up just short falling 5-4 to the Hawks.
Covenant ends its season at 8-9 overall. Huntingdon (12-5) moves on to the semifinal round and will meet second-seed Methodist on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Matthew Harvie and Chris Cox showed why they were both chosen to All-USA South teams as the pair combined for three of Covenant's points. The duo earned a hard-fought 9-7 victory at No. 1 doubles over Huntingdon's Bobby Foroughian and Zac Baldwin to draw Covenant to within 2-1 after doubles play.
Harvie bested Foroughian 6-3, 6-0 at the No. 1 singles spot to keep the Scots close, while Cox took a 6-3, 6-4 decision over Sebastian Riveros at No. 2. Michael O'Brien accounted for the fourth Covenant point with a 7-6 (2), 7-5 win over John Jones at the No. 3 position. Huntingdon grabbed singles wins at Nos. 4-6 to secure the victory.
With his singles win, Cox became the first Covenant player since 2011 to record double-digit singles wins. The freshman went 10-6 on the year.