April 16, 2009

HOUSTON, Texas. - The Memphis women's tennis squad saw their season end on Thursday in the first round of the C-USA Championships at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. UTEP walked away from the courts at Hess Stadium with a 4-1 win over Memphis, despite Memphis forcing three matches into third sets. Head Coach Lee Taylor Walker's second season with the Memphis women's tennis program ends with the Lady Tigers posting a record of 10-13, the team's best record since the 2003-04 campaign. Eighth-seed UTEP moves on to face the No. 1 seed SMU on Friday in Houston.

The day started with tight matches played in all of the doubles matches played between the UTEP Miners and the Memphis Lady Tigers. At No. 1 singles, the U of M tandem of Ashley Murdock and Marjorie Ondeck picked up their 11th win of the season with a 8-7 triumph over Weronika Bloczynska and Megan Pritchard. Pritchard and Bloczynska fall to 11-8 on the season.

At the No. 2 spot, Martina Trierweiler and Carolina DeLuca defeated Lindsey Wiseman and Amanda Brown, 8-4. Brown and Wiseman end the season with a mark of six wins and five losses.

At No. 3 doubles, the pair of Kristin Chamberlain and Sarah Irvin got out to an early lead but their lead was squashed by the tandem of Ximena Fuentes and Marina DeLuca. Chamberlain and Irvin end the season with a 1-3 record. Fuentes and DeLuca have posted a record of 8-3.

In singles, the Miners grabbed a quick victory at the No. 4 spot from Marina DeLuca. The UTEP netter took the match over Memphis' Chamberlain, 6-1, 6-0. Chamberlain ends the season with a record of 4-9. DeLuca is currently 19-2. Leading the match 2-0, the UTEP women's tennis squad extended the lead to 3-0 with a win at the No. 5 spot for Pritchard over Irvin. Irvin finishes her inaugural campaign as member of the Memphis team with a record of eight wins and 15 losses. The Tigers were able to close the UTEP lead to 3-1, with a key singles victory from Ondeck, a junior from Monroe, Ct. The Lady Tiger netter triumphed 6-3, 6-4, over UTEP's Trierweiler. Ondeck wraps up the season with a mark of 12-13.

With the match still in doubt, it came down the three matches to decide the winner of the opening round dual between UTEP and Memphis. At No. 1 singles, Memphis' Murdock lost her first set, 7-5, to Bloczynska but was able to force a deciding third set with a second set victory, 6-2. Much was the same at the No. 6 singles spot. Wiseman, a sophomore from Memphis, Tenn., lost her first set, 6-3, but came storming back for a 6-2 victory in the second set over Fuentes. At No. 3 singles, Brown, a junior from Whitby, Ontario, won her first set, 7-6. But fell by a 6-1 clip to UTEP's Carolina DeLuca.

With three matches sent to third sets it became vital for Memphis to win the next match to stay alive in the dual. However, Wiseman was unable to win her third set, falling 6-4 to Fuentes. The U of M sophomore ends the season with a mark of 5-6. In the other two matches, UTEP's Bloczynska was ahead 3-2 over Murdock in the third set and Memphis' Brown was all knotted up with DeLuca, 3-3.

The Conference USA tournament will continue with two matches this afternoon at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium in Houston. Four more matches will be played Friday.