East Tennessee State is playing for both Southern Conference tennis championships this afternoon after 4-0 semifinal wins Saturday at Chattanooga's Champions Club.
The second-seeded ETSU women defeated the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, seeded third. The ETSU men beat Wofford.
The men's final pits the top-seeded Buccaneers (17-5) against third seed Furman (13-10), which overcame a 2-1 deficit in edging No. 2 seed Samford 4-3, but the fourth-seeded Samford women (12-11) reversed that outcome by rallying past top-seeded Furman (15-9) for a 4-3 victory decided by Savannah Wood's 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 win at No. 3 singles.
Both matches today start at 1 p.m.
Samford won the women's title last year but lost 6-1 at ETSU this season. The Bulldogs lost the doubles point Saturday to Furman, which began with a 6-2 victory by Karlee Bryde and Baylor School graduate Harper Caswell, and Caswell's 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 6 singles helped the Paladins go up 3-1. But Bryde lost 6-2, 6-4 to Ellie Gerlach, and Gabby Rodriguez lost in three sets to Annika Hepp to tie the team score.
Besides Caswell, only SoCon player of the year Ansley Speaks won in singles for the No. 1 seeds.
The other women's semifinal did not reach that level of drama.
UTC's Kayla Jones and Kelsey Coots led ETSU's Lyn Yee Choo and Ana Gerbasi by three points in a matchup of all-conference doubles first-teamers but could not close out a victory before ETSU won the other two pairings, clinching a 1-0 lead. Then the Bucs won the first set in five of the six singles matches, Gerbasi falling 6-3 to the Mocs' Delaney Edwards at No. 6, and quickly closed out the match with second-set wins at Nos. 5, 1 and 4.
Delaney was leading 3-2 in the second set and UTC's Kelsey Coots was even (4-6, 6-1) for her No. 2 match when the team outcome was decided.
"I felt we really had a good chance to win doubles, but we had three match points at No. 1 and didn't get it and at No. 3 we got down 5-0 really quick," UTC women's coach Jeff Clark said. "(Alison Storie and Rachelle Gazzola) fought back (losing 6-4), but that was a really deep hole.
"When you don't get the doubles point it's even more important to start well in singles, and we weren't able to do that, but to be honest, we didn't lose today. We just got beat. (The Bucs) had a great season and they're a very good team, and they just played very well.
"I'm proud of my team for competing. We just didn't play well enough to win."
Dalton State wins SSAC
Top-seeded and nationally fifth-ranked Dalton State lost 5-0 to No. 2 Auburn-Montgomery in the championship match of the Southern States Athletic Conference men's tournament Saturday morning in Mobile, Ala. Both teams will be back in Mobile in May for the NAIA nationals.
"Championship teams rise up on days like today. AUM proved why they are the winningest program in NAIA history," DSC coach Zack Rogers said in a school release. "Bringing home the regular-season conference championship as well as the tournament runner-up plaque is something to be proud of."
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.