Feb. 26, 2008

MURRAY, Ky. - The University of Memphis women's tennis team (3-4, 0-1 C-USA) will make up a non-conference match against Murray State (4-1) Tuesday in Kentucky. The match was originally slated to be played at Southern University in Baton Rouge as part of a triangular match, but was rescheduled due to rain.

Memphis comes in to the non-conference match looking to put together back-to-back match victories for the first time this season. The Lady Tigers won their final outing at the Southern weekend, 4-1, over the host team, to improve to 1-1 on the road so far in the young season.

Sophomore Ashley Murdock leads Memphis with a seven-match winning streak, including a pair of victories at No. 1 singles last weekend. Teammates Lindsey Wiseman and Ekin Zafir packed a pair of two-match winning streaks with them to Murray. Wiseman is 2-2 at the No. 5 singles spot in her freshman campaign, while Zafir is 1-1 at No. 6 and 1-0 at No. 5 in her junior season.

Teammate Marjorie Ondeck also carries a winning streak with her heading in to Tuesday's match, having won at Southern to improve to 8-10 on the season and 4-3 in dual play singles. Ondeck is 5-5 in her last 10 matches and is 4-2 at No. 3 singles thus far in the season.

The Lady Tigers have relied on a variety of doubles tandems through the first seven matches of the season. The team of Murdock and Ondeck won both matches at No. 1 doubles last weekend to improve to 5-1 on the season, while the team of Amanda Brown and Ekin Zafir is 1-2 at the No. 1 doubles spot and 101 at the No. 2 spot. With a 6-3 mark when teamed together, the duo is 3-3 in dual match play and carries a one match win streak in to Tuesday's match.

The only doubles slot without a winning record so far this season is the No. 3 spot, where the team is a combined 3-4 overall. The team of Wiseman and Kristin Chamberlain is 1-3 at No. 3, while Chamberlain and Dara Toulch are 1-1. Brown and Zafir also played one match at No. 3, with a 1-0 mark.

Murray State is coming off a 5-2 win over Evansville, and had a season-opening three-match winning streak snapped with a 4-3 loss to Southern Miss last weekend.

Angela McGahee leads Murray with a 4-1 record at No. 1 singles, while Anne Pennington sports a 3-2 mark at No. 2 singles. Murray has used four different players at No. 3, but all four combine for just a 1-4 record so far in the dual season. The Racers are .500 at the No. 4 singles slot, with Alexis Webb sporting a 2-1 mark there. The depth of the Racer line-up has contributed to the team's 4-1 mark as the Racers have not dropped a match at either No. 5 or No. 6 singles so far this season while utilizing three different players in each slot.

In doubles, the top slot belongs to McGahee and Pennington, who are undefeated so far in the dual season with a 4-0 mark. The tandem, which is also 8-1 on the year, won the Division I doubles title at the Lady Tigers' fall tournament in October.

Murray State won the Ohio Valley Conference last year, advancing to the NCAA tournament, where they fell to Vanderbilt, 4-0. The NCAA Tournament appearance was the fourth for the Racers, who also advanced to the first round in 2001, 2002 and 2003.