GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) women's tennis team played against Elon as the visiting team at the Piedmont Indoor Tennis Center, as the cold weather and high winds moved the affair off Elon's campus on Friday afternoon.
 
The Spartans played their best match of the spring to date in a tough loss. "This was by far our best effort of the year," says Head Coach Paul Thomson. "Elon was in the finals of its conference tournament last spring. They are better this year. We lost three doubles courts with one break on each court. Then lost three singles courts in third sets. Elon had to play its best tennis to beat us. The flip side of that is we still have a lot of room to get better. We are still growing and improving."
 
All three doubles courts were nip and tuck. Each consisted of several deuce games. End-to-end, the Spartans dropped the doubles point losing 6-4, 6-3 and 6-4 on courts one, two, and three, respectively.
 
Down 1-0, singles turned into an absolute slugfest with courts one, three, four and six all going to three sets.
 
Alexandra Dodashev fell 6-4, 6-0 on court two, having a tough time finding her form from last weekend. Down 0-2, Luna Urso was the next to finish, dropping her match 6-0, 6-3. "Luna has a great game," said Thomson. "She's a fighter and likes to hit. She's struggled with a couple of pushers she's faced lower in the lineup. We're going to make some changes and get her in a spot that's going to benefit her game."
 
The next four matches all went the distance. Olivia Gallagher split her first two sets and bounced back to take the third set, 6-2, for the Spartans' lone win.
 
With the score 3-1 in favor of Elon. Hanna Giddings rallied to win her second set, 6-2, after falling in the first, 4-6. In the third set, Giddings had her shots, but came up short falling 6-3.
 
The last two matches on were perhaps some of the best tennis of the day. Arina Babkova on court one and Raegan Mitchell on court 6 played brilliantly. After winning the first set, 6-4, Babkova dropped her next two sets, 7-6 and 7-5. "It was brilliant tennis," mentioned Thomson. "Ari is finding herself. She's just getting started."
 
Mitchell, the last match on continued her exceptional play. She dropped her third set 7-6 in a fantastic effort. Although the overall team score was 6-1 for Elon, it was a much closer contest. "I could not be more proud of this team," Thomson concluded. "They improve every day. This was a conference tournament finals team we played today. We went toe to toe on every court with them. I cannot think of anything negative to say even in the loss. Our time is close!"
 
The Spartans will rehab and reboot on Saturday in preparation for their SoCon season opener on the road at Furman on Sunday. Match time is scheduled for 1:00 pm in Greenville, South Carolina.