Dukes Take Down No. 8 Coastal in Sun Belt Second Round

Thursday, April 23

Rome, Ga.

10:30 a.m.

James Madison University

Coastal Carolina

4/23/2026 3:19:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

ROME, Ga. – No. 9 James Madison claimed the doubles point in thrilling fashion and put together a strong showing in singles play to defeat No. 8 Coastal Carolina, 4-0, in the second round of the Sun Belt Conference Women's Tennis Championship on Thursday afternoon at the Rome Tennis Center.

The Dukes (12-10) advance to the Sun Belt quarterfinal matchup against top-seeded Old Dominion, which will start at 10 a.m. on Friday. It will be the second straight tournament that the Dukes and Monarchs face each other.

JMU moved on at the championship after staving off a match point in doubles play and registering three straight-set singles triumphs.

JMU's three players to go 2-0 on the day were Daria Munteanu, Ariel Avidan and Brooklyn Hoffmann. While Hoffmann had a strong court-one doubles win, the team of Munteanu and Avidan captured JMU's 1-0 lead after a late surge in doubles.

Doubles was all square at one apiece after Coastal won court three by a 6-1 margin and Hoffmann and Corinna Rietmann took down Brunelle Kouam and Francisca Laundes, 6-3, on court one.

Munteanu and Avidan trailed 5-4 against Aida Mitrache and Brooke Rogers and faced a match point on a deuce point but staved off the CCU clinching opportunity. What ensued was nothing short of dominance, as the JMU duo reeled off a string of nine winners on 10 points to win the match and clinch doubles, at 7-5.

In singles play, things were tight early. JMU took opening sets on four of six courts, however three of four were won in tiebreak fashion. Though Coastal took set leads on courts two and six, the Dukes split, taking second sets on both courts to force third sets.

JMU doubled its lead to 2-0 on court three, where Avidan upended Mitrache by a 6-3, 6-3 score. Shortly after on court four, Hoffmann, who won a 7-0 tiebreak in the opening set, cruised in the second to beat Laundes, 7-6 (0), 6-0.

The match clincher occurred on court one, as Munteanu, playing in her final championship, won a wild first set before pulling away in the second. She won the opening set by an 8-6 margin in the breaker and would go on to close the match with a 7-6 (6), 6-3 victory against Kouam.

Elsewhere, Sophie Williams held a set lead on court five (7-6 (4), 0-1) and both Mia Saveljic (4-6, 6-3, 1-0) and Anna Kantor (1-6, 6-2, 0-3) were in third sets on courts two and six, respectively.