Box Score HARTSVILLE, SC – With five of the six singles matches being decided in a third set or tiebreaker, Francis Marion University captured a hard-fought 5-2 victory over local-rival Coker University, Tuesday evening (Feb. 13) in non-conference women's tennis action.
 
Francis Marion (1-3) will play its home opener on Thursday at 2 p.m. against Lander University.  Coker suffers its first loss and drops to 2-1.
 
After the Cobras won the No.3 doubles match, FMU rallied to win the other two matches and the doubles point.  Senior Gabriel Karatantcheva and junior Kim Venghaus were victorious at the No.1 position 7-5 and sophomore Chelsea Seidewitz and freshman Polina Gontaryk earned a 7-6 (9-7) win at the No.2 spot.
 
Coker quickly knotted the match at 1-1 with a straight-sets win at No. 4 singles.  Seidewitz rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the second set to win 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 at the No.2 position.
 
FMU senior Julia Bellini Fernandes Pinto earned a 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5 victory at No.6 singles to give FMU a 3-1 advantage and Karatantcheva provided the clinching point with a 6-7 (2-7), 6-2, 6-4 come-from-behind win at the No.1 spot.
 
Gontaryk accounted for the other Francis Marion point with a 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 10-5 win at No.5 singles.
 
Francis Marion has won 35 of the 42 all-time meetings between the two programs.