ST. AUGUSTINE — For the final time Wednesday, a trio of program-changing seniors took the court for their last regular-season match at the Flagler Tennis Center.
These Flagler College women's tennis seniors —
Anika Nissen,
Eden Schlagenhauf and
Alessandra Traub — have taken the program to new heights and have more to prove in their final weeks together. The trio led the program to its first Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship a year ago, along with back-to-back ITA National Indoor appearance as a top-8 team in the nation, and consecutive NCAA Division II Southeast Regional seeds which will be a trend that continues this season.
"As always, a Senior Day is a very important day for our program and it was an emotional day for our team today," Flagler head coach
Rodrigo Puebla said. "Anika, Eden and Ale are going to be missed tremendously. They have been very successful and they helped our program to take them to a higher level on and off the court.
"As a coach, I was very luck to coach such a great trio of girls. I know they leave as young adults and I hope they become even better human-beings now since they are moving on to the real world. I wish them the best, and I hope they never forget how important they were to me and Flagler Tennis. Thank you, ladies!"
The No. 13 Saints left a stamp and capped it off one last time on their home court with a 6-1 win over No. 57 Lander University Wednesday afternoon. The trio will now head north to the University of North Georgia and Young Harris College for two final regular-season matches on Friday and Saturday, respectively, at 11 a.m.
All three seniors won their respective matches, starting in doubles as the pair of
Luisa Hrda/Schlagenhauf, Traub/Nissen and
Addison Skye Breunich all coasted over their opponents to go ahead, 1-0.
All six singles won in straight sets as Traub, Nissen and Schlagenhauf led the way. Nissen won her 15th match in a row with a pair of 6-3 victories; meanwhile Traub nearly blanked her opponent, 6-0 and 6-1, as Schlagenhauf topped hers, 6-4 in both games, to get back in the win column.
Their teammates followed suit, too. Hrda won her fifth straight, 6-1 and 7-6 (7-4), while
Florencia Massardo Brain defeated her opponent, 6-2 and 6-4, to secure the 6-1 win on Senior Day after a hard-fought loss versus Columbus State University the day before.
"It was not easy to bounce back from tough loss yesterday," Puebla said. "However, the ladies stepped up big and bounced back against a very good team in Lander. We need to keep working on staying focused the entire match to be able to play our best tennis. We need to keep pushing as a team, and we now we need to finish strong this weekend when we head to UNG and Young Harris."
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