April 23, 2010

Final Stats

TULSA, Okla. - The 2010 season came to an end on Friday evening as the Memphis Lady Tigers fell 4-0 to the 27th-ranked SMU Mustangs in the second round of the C-USA Women's Tennis Championship at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla.

With the loss, the Lady Tigers finish the season with an overall mark of 13-16. SMU advances to the semifinals where they will face either Marshall or UCF on Saturday at 12 p.m.

The top-seeded Mustangs came out on Friday afternoon and quickly took the doubles point by sweeping all three positions. At the No. 3 spot, Edyta Cieplucha and Casey Kennedy defeated Amanda Brown and Dara Toulch, 8-0. Brown and Toulch end the year with a 3-5 mark.

At No. 2 doubles, the SMU pair of Pavi Francis and Shahzoda Hatamova upended Courtney Collins and Kelly Gray, 8-5. Gray and Collins conclude their freshman seasons with a 15-8 record in doubles.

At the No. 1 slot, Marta Lesniak and Aleks Malyarchikova defeated Ashley Murdock and Marjorie Ondeck, 8-5. Murdock and Ondeck wrap up their senior seasons with a 12-14 doubles record.

In singles, Cieplucha, ranked No. 116 in the nation, put SMU ahead 2-0 in the match with a 6-0, 6-1, victory over Toulch, a senior from Montreal, Quebec. Toulch falls to 5-9 in her final season for the Blue and Gray.

Hatamova added to the Mustangs lead with a 6-3, 6-3, win over Gray, a freshman from Murfreesboro, Tenn. Gray wraps up her freshman season with a 9-19 record.

Katerina Vankova sealed the victory for SMU with a 6-0, 7-5, win over Ondeck, a senior from Monroe, Conn. Ondeck concludes her senior year with an 11-14 record.

The loss to SMU marks the conclusion to the U of M's season. The Lady Tigers' victory in the first round over Southern Miss marked their first win at the C-USA Women's Tennis Championship since 2005.

Friday's loss means the end of the careers of Amanda Brown, Ashley Murdock, Marjorie Ondeck and Dara Toulch. Brown, Ondeck and Toulch were all four year players for the Lady Tigers. Murdock was a back-to-back All-C-USA selection for the U of M in 2008 and 2009 after transferring from LSU. Despite losing four seniors, Memphis will return a solid core of freshmen Courtney Collins, Andrea Arques-Garcia and Kelly Gray for the 2010-11 slate.