The Clark Atlanta University Lady Panthers tennis team made their first appearance in the NCAA Division II Women's Tennis Tournament since 2011 but fell 4-0 to the third-ranked team in the country, Nova Southeastern, in Fort Lauderdale Monday.

The Lady Panthers, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions, finish the season 16-4 overall, while Nova Southeastern, which is hosting the South Region tournament, is now 22-4.

On a hot day in south Florida, Akilah Parker and Alexis Fletcher fell to Sarah Wardenburg and Natalie Espinal in doubles 6-0, followed by a 6-0 loss by Vivian Moultrie and Nicola Ramdyhan to Chantal Nosievici and Diane Follin-Arbelet.  The two wins combined to give Nova Southeastern a 1-0 lead on CAU.

In singles, Vanessa Eusebio battled Follin-Arbelet hard, jumping ahead early, but then falling behind 5-2.  Eusebio rallied to make it 5-4 before Follin-Arbelet eventually on the set 6-4. 

But before Eusebio's second second could begin, the Sharks got wins from Sarah Wardenburg over Keyvona Moultrie (6-0, 6-1), Chantal Nosievici over Alexis Fletcher (6-0, 6-0), and Natalie Espinal over Nicola Ramdyhan (6-1, 6-0) to defeat Clark Atlanta 4-0 and move on to the South Region 2 final against the winner of the Lynn vs. West Florida match.   

It was CAU's first lost since an early April defeat to Georgia College.

Two other matches were in progress before Nova Southeastern finished the day with their wins – Akilah Parker lost a tough first set 6-2 and was down 1-0, while Saran Lloyd was down 6-0, 2-0.

While the season ends for CAU, it was a triumphant campaign for the Lady Panthers who went undefeated in Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play, had the SIAC's Coach of the Year and Coach of the SIAC Tournament (Tara Turner), Player of the Year (Akilah Parker), earned five spots on the All-SIAC team, and six places on the All-Tournament team.