AUGUSTA, Ga. – The No. 18 (Oracle/ITA Division II rankings) Flagler College women's tennis team will open the Peach Belt Conference Women's Tennis Championship as the No. 2 seed and will face the No. 7 seed Augusta University in a quarterfinal match. The match will take place Friday at 12 p.m. at the Dr. Eddie Floyd Florence Tennis Center in Florence, South Carolina.
The No. 2 seed is the highest seed the program has ever received since joining the league for the 2009-10 season.
Flagler won the match played earlier in the season (March 13) 7-0 at the Flagler Tennis Center. Since 2010, the Saints hold an 11-1 record in the series and won the last seven in a row.
Flagler (15-5 overall, 8-1 PBC) comes in on a hot streak having won its last seven matches in a row. The Saints boast the No. 66-ranked player in the country in senior
Felicitas Runkel. She is 12-8 this season playing exclusively as the No. 1 player. Runkel has two wins against nationally ranked competition.
Eden Schlagenhauf is 13-6 at No. 2 singles. The freshman already has defeated a nationally ranked player.
Anika Nissen is 10-1 at No. 3 while
Lixin Wang is a perfect 10-0 at No. 4.
Alessandra Traub holds a 13-4 record at No. 5 and
Paloma Martinez is 12-6 at No. 6. Flagler's last three singles players are riding six-match win streaks.
The Saints have a pair of nationally ranked doubles teams. Traub and Martinez are ranked No. 19 while Wang and Nissen are ranked No. 48. The Traub/Martinez duo produced an 8-5 record, but their last match together was March 23. Wang and Nissen were a perfect 13-0 during the regular season.
Augusta (11-7, 3-6) has won six of its last eight matches. The Jaguars Nos. 3-5 players have posted an overall record of 38-14. Marye Gobernate is 8-3 at No. 3; Alejandra Arranz is 9-3 at No. 4; and Marie Cantenot is 8-1 at No. 5.
Ana Faria and Gobernate have been tough all year at No. 2 doubles with a 9-3 record.
The winner of the match will take on the winner of the No. 3-seed University of North Georgia vs. No. 6 seed Francis Marion University on Saturday at 12 p.m.
Flagler is 5-9 all-time in the PBC Championship since joining the league for the 2010 season. The Saints have advanced to five semifinal matches (2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018) with three of those losses coming two Columbus State.
The winner of the tournament will earn receive the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional.
The PBC Championship Quarterfinal matches are:
#1 Columbus State vs. #8 Lander
#2 Flagler vs. #7 Augusta
#3 North Georgia vs. #6 Francis Marion
#4 USC Aiken vs. #5 Georgia College
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