Box Score Box ScoreSAINT LEO, Fla. -- Barry University women's tennis team beat Lynn, 5-2, Friday in the Sunshine State Conference semifinals.
The No. 2-ranked Buccaneers (19-1) advanced to their sixth straight conference finals match, having won the past five. It was the second win over No. 6 Lynn (17-4) this season.
Barry jumped out to a 3-0 lead in sweeping the doubles.
Kimmy Twelker and
Elisabeth Abanda picked up the first point for the Bucs, cruising to an 8-1 win over Martina Gledacheva and Grace Mpassy at the No. 3 position. Third-ranked
Linda Fritschken and
Emma Onila were 8-3 winners over Carolina Cuevas and Alina Jane at No. 2. Ninth-ranked
Sonja Larsen and
Ana Pain won a battle with No. 15 Vale Confalonieri and Rosalie Willig, 8-6, at No. 1.
Lynn cut the Bucs lead to 3-1 when Mpassy defeated Twelker, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 6 singles. Fritschken, ranked 27th in the country, rolled over Jane, 6-0, 6-2, at No. 4 to move Barry within a point of clinching. The Fighting Knights remained alive after the second-ranked Confalonieri beat Abanda, 6-2, 7-5, at No. 1 singles. Abanda,
who earned a No. 9 South Region ranking this week, bounced back in the second set to take a 5-4 lead, but Confalonieri took the last three games to win the match. That cut the Bucs lead to 4-2.
Pain, who is ranked 14th in the South, took the first set from Gledacheva, 6-4, at No. 5 singles before falling behind 4-3 and 5-4 in the second set. But Pain broke Gledacheva, winning the last three games to prevail, 7-5, to clinch the victory for Barry.
Third-ranked Onila pulled out a first-set tiebreaker with Cuevas, 7-6 (7-5), and led 2-1 in the second set when the match was stopped. Sixth-ranked Larsen dropped the first set to 26th-ranked Willig, 6-4, before winning the second set, 6-1. But like Onila, her match was left unfinished after Pain clinched.
Barry will play No. 5 Saint Leo in Saturday's 9 a.m. championship match.
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