April 10, 2010

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The University of Memphis women's tennis team dropped two C-USA matches at the Southern Miss Tennis Complex over the weekend in Hattiesburg, Miss. The Lady Tigers fell 5-2 to Southern Miss on Friday and 5-2 to Tulane on Saturday afternoon. Memphis ends the regular season with an overall mark of 12-16 heading into the Conference USA Tournament from April 22-25 in Tulsa, Okla.

At the No. 1 doubles spot Ashley Murdock and Marjorie Ondeck lost their two matches on the weekend. On Friday, the pair fell to Elja van Berlo and Vroni van Berlo, 8-5. On Saturday against the Green Wave, the U of M duo lost to Mariam Kurdadze and Emma Levy, 8-6. Murdock and Ondeck fall to 11-14 on the season.

At No. 2 doubles, Courtney Collins and Kelly Gray split their two matches on the weekend. On Friday, the pair was upended by the Golden Eagles' Lauren Gutterman and Stephanie Dellocono, 8-3. In Saturday's match with Tulane, Collins and Gray defeated Emma Helisten and Lindsay Dvorak, 8-5. Gray and Collins end the weekend with a team-leading doubles mark of 14-7 in their freshman seasons at the U of M.

At the No. 3 slot, Andrea Arques-Garcia and Amanda Brown fell 8-5 to Zoe Lee and Shannon Rogers of Southern Miss. On Sunday, the pair lost 8-3 to Hilla Elster and Elizabeth Hamlin. Arques-Garcia and Brown end the regular season with a 3-14 doubles mark.

At No. 1 singles, Murdock split matches in the Lady Tigers' two matches. On Friday, the Memphis native upended Vroni van Berlo in three sets, 6-7(5), 6-3, 12-10. The match marked her 16th dual win of the season. The win marks the most wins the back-to-back All-C-USA selection has picked up in her three year stint at Memphis. On Saturday, Tulane's Kurdadze defeated Murdock, 7-6(1), 6-2. Murdock caps off the regular season with a 16-12 record.

At the No. 2 singles spot, Collins went 2-0 on the weekend with a defeat on Friday of Southern Miss' Dellocono, 6-3, 6-1, and on Saturday of Tulane's Levy, 6-4, 6-4. Collins heads into the C-USA Tournament with a 16-9 record to tie Murdock for the most singles wins on the team.

At the No. 3 spot, Ondeck, a senior from Monroe, Conn., fell to Elja van Berlo, 6-2, 6-2, on Friday against the Golden Eagles. On Saturday, Ondeck upended Hamlin of the Green Wave, 7-6(3), 7-5. Ondeck's record now stands at 11-12 in her senior season.

At No. 4 singles, Brown fell to Southern Miss' Gutterman, 6-3, 6-3. On Saturday, the senior from Whitby, Ontario, was upended by Dvorak, 6-1, def. Brown ends the weekend with a 7-17 singles mark.

At the No. 5 slot, Gray, a freshman from Murfreesboro, Tenn., fell to the Golden Eagles' Lee, 5-7, 6-1, 10-8. In Saturday's match, Gray lost to Tulane's Helisten, 6-1, 6-4. The C-USA's reigning Player of the Week heads into the C-USA Tournament with a 9-17 singles mark.

At No. 6 singles, Toulch fell to Rogers, 6-1, 6-1, against Southern Miss. On Saturday against Tulane, the Tiger senior lost 6-0, 6-1 to Elster. Toulch is 4-8 on the year in singles.