Sumter, SC - The Emmanuel College Women's Tennis Team traveled to compete at the Conference Carolinas Championships searching for their second title in program history.

Emmanuel was not able to win the doubles point and the 1-0 deficit at the start of the singles play proved to be a major task today.

With all six courts playing a very close contest, it was the Sophomore Alejandra Guerrero who tied everything this afternoon with a 6-1 6-2 win on court #1. Barton College grabbed 2 more wins on courts #3 and #4. 

The Junior Zyanya Rogel reduced the advantage of the Bulldogs with a solid win on court #6 by 6-1 6-4. The Senior Selina Donecker, on court #5, had to go through a series of service breaks to win a complicated first set in a tie breaker. The second set was close with a slight advantage for the Lion and Donecker finally won in a last minute break to close out, 7-6 6-4, putting the overall at 3-3.

It all came down to the Freshman Soleny Gonzalez, who used the series of early mistakes from the Bulldog to win a comfortable first set. In the second, the match became more even and Barton was determined to make Gonzalez play longer rallies, which proved to be enough to take the match to the third and deciding set. Soleny raised the bar and earned a break and raced to a 4-1 lead in the decider, but she saw her foe tie everything at 5-5. Emmanuel broke Barton's serve again to serve for the match at 6-5. The Bulldog saved a match point in a no-ad point, taking the deciding match to a very tense tie-breaker. The 16 year old, proved to have the mental game to play a much more solid tennis to clinch the overall for Emmanuel in a 3-set thriller, 6-2 4-6 7-6. 

Soleny Gonzalez was named 2022 Conference Carolinas Freshman of the year.

Emmanuel College will now face the University of Mount Olive Trojans in the semi-final match.

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