Nichelle Heard helped the Golden Bulls advance in the CIAA Tournament with victories in No. 2 doubles and No. 5 singles
Ettrick, VA – The Johnson C. Smith University women's tennis team finished the 2014 season at the CIAA Tennis Tournament held April 17-19 at the Virginia State Tennis Complex. The Golden Bulls defeated Virginia Union University 5-1 in the quarterfinals, but fell 5-0 to Chowan University in the semifinals. JCSU closes the season with an overall record of 11-10 and a conference mark of 10-3.
On the first day of competition, the second-seeded Golden Bulls earned a 5-1 win over the VUU Lady Panthers. The All-CIAA tandem of freshman
Victoria Ogundipe (Jonesboro, GA) and sophomore
Khadijha Battle opened doubles play with an 8-0 win at No. 3 doubles over Christionne Taylor and DeJasmine Byrson. Virginia Union would respond with an 8-1 win at No. 1 doubles against seniors
Felicia Akande (Winston-Salem, NC) and
Keiana Love (Wilson, NC).
The junior duo of
Rankin Anderson (Decatur, GA) and
Nichelle Heard (Douglasville, GA) finished doubles play off with an 8-2 victory in No. 2 doubles. With a 2-1 lead heading into singles play, JCSU finished the match with three singles wins. Heard kicked things off with a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 5 singles, while Ogundipe took a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles. Love finished off the contest with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles.
JCSU faced Chowan on day two of tournament competition. Chowan, the eventual CIAA Tournament champions, shutout the Golden Bulls 5-0 to advance to the championship match. The Hawks topped Virginia State to win the 2014 tournament crown.
Love and Akande dropped the No. 1 doubles flight to Natalya Kamenshchikova and Holly Stambaugh 8-2 for the initial match. Meanwhile, the doubles pairs of Anderson and Heard as well as Battle and Ogundipe suffered 8-3 and 8-4 losses at the second and third doubles positions, respectively.
In singles competition, Kamenshchikova topped Love 6-1, 6-0. Stambaugh defeated Battle 6-1, 6-2 to secure the victory for the Hawks.
Despite not finishing the year with a championship, the Golden Bulls can celebrate an improvement in their winning percentage this season. JCSU had an overall winning percentage of .524 (11-10) and a conference percentage of .769 (10-3). Last season, the Golden Bulls were 10-15 (.400) and 10-6 (.625) in the CIAA.
The Golden Bulls will lose seniors
Felicia Akande and
Keiana Love, but all-conference selections
Khadijha Battle and
Victoria Ogundipe should be returning for next season.
