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.