Liberty Celebrates Senior Day With 7-0 Victory Over Bellarmine

Liberty celebrated its two seniors with a 7-0 victory over visiting Bellarmine in its last ASUN regular season match of the year, Saturday morning at the Liberty Indoor Tennis Center.

The Lady Flames cap off an unbeaten conference regular season at 6-0 in the ASUN North Division and improve to 17-5 overall in 2021. Meanwhile, Bellarmine finishes its first regular season in the ASUN at 0-6 and is 0-16 overall on the year.

Prior to the match, Liberty honored its two seniors – Grace Hashiguchi and Kelly Lewis – with a special ceremony. On the court, Hashiguchi won her singles matches in the No. 4 position in the lineup. Lewis helped secure the doubles point, winning at No. 2 doubles with Tiffany Nguyen.

Liberty has secured the No. 1 seed for the ASUN North Division and will host Bellarmine, the No. 4 seed in the North Division, next Saturday at 10 a.m. in an ASUN Championship quarterfinal match. The winner of that match will move on to the semifinals, hosted by North Florida, April 23. The ASUN Women's Tennis Championship final will take place on April 24 at the UNF Tennis Complex in Jacksonville, Fla.

Liberty 7, Bellarmine 0

Singles Competition
1. Tiffany Nguyen (LIBERTYW) def. Aubrey Smith (BELL) 6-2, 6-1
2. Esther Lovato (LIBERTYW) def. Ava Ratcliff (BELL) 6-1, retired
3. Micaela Ode Mitre (LIBERTYW) def. Maja Kozerski (BELL) 6-1, 6-2
4. Grace Hashiguchi (LIBERTYW) def. Channing Varnum (BELL) 6-2, 6-0
5. Eloise Saraty (LIBERTYW) def. No player (BELL), by default
6. Kelly Lewis (LIBERTYW) def. No player (BELL), by default

Doubles Competition
1. Aubrey Smith/Ava Ratcliff (BELL) def. Alexandra Almborg/Eloise Saraty (LIBERTYW) 7-5
2. Tiffany Nguyen/Kelly Lewis (LIBERTYW) def. Channing Varnum/Maja Kozerski (BELL) 6-4
3. Esther Lovato/Grace Hashiguchi (LIBERTYW) def. No player/No player (BELL), by default

Bellarmine 0-16, 0-6 ASUN
Liberty 17-5, 6-0 ASUN
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (2,3,1,4)
Senior Day
Official: B Harrison/J Conley T-1:59

How It Happened
• Liberty won the doubles point and each of the four contested singles matches (No. 2, 3, 1 and 4). Bellarmine defaulted the No. 3 doubles match and the No. 5 and No. 6 singles match. After the Lady Flames won the doubles session, they led 3-0 due to the defaulted singles matches from the Knights.
• Liberty's Lewis and Nguyen (No. 2 doubles), playing a competitive doubles match for the first time together, overcame a 4-3 deficit to Channing Varnum and Maja Kozerski to win 6-4. When trailing 4-3, Lewis and Nguyen also fell behind 40-15 prior to mounting the comeback.
• Bellarmine's Aubrey Smith and Ava Ratcliff topped Liberty's Alexandra Almborg and Eloise Saraty 7-5 at No. 1 doubles.
• Esther Lovato of the Lady Flames bested Ratcliff. Lovato won the first set 6-1 before Ratcliff retired, giving Liberty a 4-0 lead. The second-year Liberty player is now 20-1 in singles, this season.
• Micaela Ode Mitre (No. 3 singles) pushed the lead to 5-0 with her 6-1, 6-2 result over Kozerski. Ode Mitre ranks second on the team with 15 singles victories. The Lady Flames' lead grew to 6-0, as Nguyen topped Smith 6-2, 6-1 on court one.
• The seventh and final point of the day came from Hashiguchi on her Senior Day. She claimed her 33rd career singles match at Liberty, winning 6-2, 6-0 versus her counterpart, Varnum, on court four. Hashiguchi has 84 career victories (33 singles wins, 51 doubles wins) in her time as a Lady Flame.
• Liberty swept the regular season two-match series with Bellarmine and is 2-0 all-time versus the Knights.
• Since joining the ASUN prior to the 2018-19 school year, the Lady Flames are 12-1 in ASUN regular season matches.

Next Up
• Liberty will close out regular season play at home against the Virginia Tech Hokies (5-15), Wednesday afternoon. Match time is set for 2 p.m. at the Liberty Tennis Complex.
• The Lady Flames are 0-6 all-time versus the Hokies. Liberty and Virginia Tech last faced each other in 2018, a 5-2 win for the Hokies on their home courts.