
Three Spartan seniors won their final home matches Saturday, as the University of Tampa beat Palm Beach Atlantic 8-1 Saturday.
“I’m so glad we won our final home game,” commented Brittany Johnson. Her classmates and teammates, Katie McCabe and Heather Eli also won their singles matches.
“We had a great match,” Johnson said, “All of the girls on the team had so much enthusiasm, and they cheered me on the whole time. I just can’t believe it was my last game on my own stomping grounds. I’m going to miss these courts a lot. They have been so good to me.”
Heather Eli, team captain and UT’s all-time leader in singles and doubles victories, won her number-five singles match and number-one doubles match.
“I’m so proud of our team. We have really come a long way,” Eli said.
The win improved UT’s record to 6-11.
“The girls have made this season memorable for me, and this match really allowed us to show our skills and let PBAU know that Tampa means business!” Eli said.
Katie McCabe teamed up with Caitlin Scudder for the number-two doubles slot, and they rallied for an hour and fifteen minutes against PBAU and took home another win for Tampa.
“I think Katie’s backhand alone was enough to crush PBAU. They did make us run a lot, but I think we had the win in the bag the whole time.” Scudder said.
Lindsay Pine, Lindsay McClendon and Allison Beck also won their singles matches.
Pine played number-one singles for the first time this season, and she rallied her way to the top with a score of 6-2 in her second set.
McClendon was victorious in the number-two singles slot, and Allison Beck won by default for the number-six singles position.
The tennis team has its final match against Saint Leo University on Tuesday and the team seems fired up and ready for another win.
“We are going to crush SLU on Tuesday because we want to make our season 7-11,” said Necat Akman, who sat out the PBAU match with a sprained ankle. Akman was scheduled to play in the number-two singles slot for Tuesday’s game. “I am going to drive my SLU opponent crazy with my spinilicious serve. We are going to ace them.”