ELON, N.C.- In the first competition of the fall season, the North Carolina Central women's tennis team clutched all three flight A consolation round final wins during the Elon Fall Invitational on Oct. 7-9 in Elon, N.C.

NCCU head women's tennis coach David Nass traveled to the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center with senior Cameron Chatman, sophomore Olesya Palko and freshman Ekaterina Nekrasova.  Trio competed in competed in the Flight A draws, with Plako entering the A-1 draw, Chatman competing in the A-2 draw, and Nekrasova playing in the A-3 draw.

All three student-athletes would go on to the finals consolation round and win, but what is most unique about the weekend is the road to the consolation finals.  Each member of the squad lost in the opening round of play, was then reseeded to consolation play where they would flourish to victory.

Palko began with a loss to Isabel Von Stryk of USC Upstate.  Stryk defeated the Kyiv, Ukraine native 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.  In consolation play, Palko defeated Paife Oekle(Presbyterian) 6-1, 6-1, then beat Marta Pinyol (Longwood) 6-2, 6-4 and conquered Alexis Prickett (Ga. Southern) 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (7) in the finals.

Chatman began her singles competition with a three-set 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 loss to Malin Allgurin of Longwood.  The High Point, N.C., native then went on to consolation play, where she beat Katya Yegoreychenko (Campbell) 6-1, 6-3.  In semifinal competition, Chatman defeated Carolina DeLoach (Presbyterian) 3-6, 6-2, 10-8.  Chatman faced Julie Bell of USC Upstate in the finals, and beat her 7-5, 6-2.

Nekrasova concluded singles round play for the Lady Eagles, falling to Caitlin Kitchen of Georgia Southern 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.  In the first round of consolation play, Borislave Nikolova (Campbell) lost to the freshman.  Nekrasova then defeated Greer Ransom (Presbyterian) 6-1, 7-5, before beating Jessica Swan (Western Carolina) 6-3, 6-2 in the finals.

The Lady Eagles competed in one round of doubles play during the weekend.  Palko and Nekrasova came together to battle Paola Garrido and Alexis Pickett of Georgia Southern in the A-1 doubles, the pair lost 8-3 in the opening round play.

The duo moved to consolation play, beating Paige Oelke and Courtney Gardnier of Presbyterian by default and then fell to Devon Cavanaugh and Emily McNall of UNC Ashville 9-8 (4) in the finals.

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