CHARLOTTE – #2 Charleston Southern advanced to Saturday's Big South Championship courtesy of a narrow 4-3 victory over #3 Gardner-Webb on Friday afternoon. The overall match needed every match to decide a victor and Brenda Yoris provided the clincher in three sets, punching the Bucs' ticket to the finals.
 
The Buccaneers started the day by getting the doubles point for an early lead. Charleston Southern's topflight pairing of Noa Boyd and Amila Jusufbegovic won decisively at 6-1. Gardner-Webb got the result on court #3 by a 6-4 score. However, CSU's duo of Khyanna Singh and Jessica Braun claimed the #2 match at 6-4 to take the point.
 
In singles, Marina Skegro extended the Buccaneers' lead to 2-0 with her victory on court #4. The final score for it was 6-4, 6-2. Gardner-Webb then took the matches on each of the top three courts, all being decided in straight sets to shoot Gardner-Webb ahead at 3-2.
 
With Charleston Southern now having no margin for error, Kassandra Di Staulo pulled the match back to even at three apiece. In the match she won 7-5, 2-6, 6-0, claiming a decisive victory in the third set to prevail.
 
Yoris was the one who had the overall match come down to her court. In it, she was victorious getting the first set 7-5, dropped the second 2-6 and then took the third 6-2 punching Charleston Southern's fourth consecutive appearance in the finals.
 
The Buccaneers will return to the courts to take on #1 UNC Asheville tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. in the Championship match. The winner will receive the Big South's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Charleston Southern is seeking their fourth consecutive title and NCAA Tournament berth.