Box Score ROME, Ga. -- A marathon match and a dramatic extra-set battle ultimately decided the outcome as four-seed Tennessee Wesleyan edged sixth-seeded Southeastern, 4–2, ending the Fire's push for a third-place finish after three hours and 45 minutes of competition at the ITA NAIA National Women's Team Indoor Championship.
The doubles point foreshadowed the tightly contested afternoon. Tennessee Wesleyan struck first on flight two, where Ruslana Kovalenko and Ivet Prat earned a quick 6–2 win over
Isabella Bolivar Garces and
Irene Parigi. Southeastern answered on flight three, as
Leonie Schondelmaier and
Aurora Compagnucci posted a 6–3 victory against Laia Berne and Honoki Tsuja. The decisive result came on flight one, where the Bulldogs secured the point with a 6–4 win over
Martina Picardi and
Alessia Ciampi for a 1–0 lead.
Tennessee Wesleyan carried that momentum into singles. No. 24 Olivia Alcala extended the advantage with a straight-set win over Garces at line two, 6–2, 6–2. Picardi responded for the Fire at the top spot, delivering a 6–0, 6–4 victory over Kovalenko to put Southeastern on the board. The Bulldogs regained control at line three, where Schondelmaier battled into a third set before falling 6–4, 0–6, 6–3, pushing the team score to 3–1.
SEU refused to go quietly. Compagnucci kept the Fire alive with a 6–4, 6–4 win against Margarita Tatur on line six, trimming the deficit to 3–2.
The center of attention quickly became line four, where Ciampi squared off with No. 8-ranked Pret in a back-and-forth thriller. Ciampi erased a 4–0 deficit in the opening set to claim it 6–4, only for Pret to rally from 4–1 down to take the second by the same score. The third set delivered more swings, with Ciampi climbing back from a 5–3 hole and even moving ahead 6–5. The match advanced to an extended tiebreak, where both players traded mini-breaks. Unfortunately for the Fire, Pret finally secured the clinching points, prevailing 11–9 to seal the team victory for the Bulldogs.
Parigi's match at line five went unfinished, with the Fire sophomore leading 4–6, 6–1, 4–1 at the time the dual was decided.
Despite the narrow loss, Southeastern proved they could hang with the best the NAIA has to offer. The Fire will look to carry that momentum forward when they return to action on February 25 with a Sun Conference road match at New College of Florida, with the first serve at 2 p.m..
