Sept. 24, 2011

JONESBORO, Ga. - Two singles championship and a doubles title highlighted the Bethune-Cookman University women's tennis team performance at the National HBCU Tennis Championships Saturday.

Katarina Szaboova won the "A" flight championship while Stacey Speller took the "B" flight singles and combined with Shereen Peterson-Paul to take the "B" doubles.

In the team standings, B-CU finished second to Southern.

"We came here wanting to get some match play in as well as trying to motivate everybody, and now the players are on top of the world," said B-CU coach Tim Pleasant. "Everyone was one supporting one another and the girls especially bought into it. The opponents had no idea what we could do."

Szaboova, a senior from Slovokia, rebounded from losing a lopsided first set to beat Carlista Mohammed of Southern, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4.

After beating her doubles partner 6-2,6-2 in the semifinals, Speller defeated Christine Gwodog from Southern 7-6,6-1. Speller and Peterson-Paul then downed Morgan Taylor and Camara Davis of Southern 8-5. Taylor/Davis had eliminated the Szaboova/Laura Rodriguez B-CU duo in the quarterfinals.

The B-CU men's team also competed, highlighted by Kip Jackson advancing to the "B" flight quarterfinals and teaming with Marc Misanovic to get in the "B" flight doubles quarterfinals.