NEWBERRY, S.C. – The No. 12 Newberry College women's tennis team (13-2, 6-1 South Atlantic Conference) suffered their first conference defeat at the hands of the No. 26 Wingate Bulldogs (10-2, 6-0 SAC). The match of previously-undefeated teams pitted the 2022 SAC tournament runner-up Bulldogs against the Wolves, the SAC team that made the deepest run in the NCAA tournament last season.

The Wolves were off to a good start to doubles play as the No. 35 pairing of redshirt senior Zulay Castaneda (Panama City, Panama) and senior Nastassia Chamoun (Reunion Island, France) started the Wolves off with a 6-4 victory on court one. But the good start was not enough for the Wolves to claim the point as freshman Sofia Cardenas (Bogotá, Colombia) and junior Ish Singh (Gurgaon, India) fell 6-4 on court two. Junior Rosie Harfield (Lee-on-Solent, England) and freshman Aina Miralles (Barcelona, Catalonia) then fell 7-5 on court three and Wingate took the doubles point.

The Bulldogs carried that momentum into a victory in the first-finished singles match as Miralles fell in two sets on court five: 2-6, 6-7. The Wolves bounced back as 68th-ranked Castaneda took a marathon three-set victory on court one: 3-6, 6-1, 7-5. But in the final odd-numbered matchup of singles play, the Bulldogs took the point in a three-set affair over Singh: 6-3, 0-6, 5-7, putting them one point away from securing the match.

Chamoun then kept the Wolves alive as she defeated 75th-ranked Elena Gunfaus of Wingate in two sets: 7-5, 6-2.

After claiming the first set of her match, Harfield fell in three sets and the Bulldogs secured the victory: 6-4, 3-6, 2-6. Cardenas, despite playing a match that could no longer change the outcome of the match, rattled off an impressive two-set victory: 7-6, 6-4.

The Wolves continue their conference slate as they head to Harrogate, Tenn. for a matchup with the Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters on Saturday, April 1.