April 15, 2009

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis women's tennis team will kick off the 2009 C-USA Tennis Championships on Thursday at 10 a.m., at the Jake Hess Tennis Center on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. The ninth-seed Lady Tigers will play the opening match of the day against the eighth-seed UTEP Miners. The meeting between the Miners and Lady Tigers marks the first time the program's have competed this season. Last year Memphis defeated UTEP, 4-0.

The U of M is coming off of the program's first win in 10 years over the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders last Saturday and a struggle with conference foe Tulane on Tuesday, in which the Lady Tigers fell at the hands of the Green Wave, 6-1. Memphis comes into the C-USA Tournament with a record of 10-12. This is the first time since the 2003-04 season that the Memphis women's tennis program has finished the season with 10 wins or more.

Memphis' singles attack is led by 2008 All-C-USA selection Ashley Murdock, a native of Memphis, Tenn. Murdock has rattled off 15 wins for the second season in a row for coach Lee Taylor Walker's U of M netters. Following Murdock in the singles line-up is Marjorie Ondeck, a junior from Monroe, Ct. Ondeck has posted 11 singles wins, which is just behind Murdock on the single win charts this season. The Lady Tigers also have experience at the bottom of their line-up with senior Kristin Chamberlain, junior Amanda Brown and sophomore Lindsey Wiseman. The lone newbie to the conference tournament is freshman Sarah Irvin, a freshman from Queensland, Australia.

In doubles, Ondeck and Murdock are 10-4 at the No. 1 singles spot. The tandem proved their worth as a doubles partnership this fall against some of the best competition in the nation at the ITA Southeast Regional in Winston-Salem, N.C. While in the Tar Heel state, the Memphis duo picked up wins over doubles tandems from No. 13 Tennessee and No. 21 North Carolina on their way to the semifinals of the doubles competition.

The No. 2 tandem of Brown and Wiseman has also found some recent success defeating opponents from Middle Tennessee, Arkansas State and Southern Miss. The Lady Tigers were able to come away with wins in two of those matches. In their last match of the regular season, Brown and Wiseman fell in a close battle with Tulane's Marcela Fonseca and Lindsay Dvorak, 9-7.

Memphis Against Conference USA in 2009
The Lady Tigers have gone 2-3 against opponents from Conference USA this season. The U of M's two wins came against Southern Miss and UAB. Prior to this season Memphis' last win over UAB was in 2004 in the Conference USA Tournament. The Lady Tigers' last beat Southern Miss during the 2002-03 season. Memphis had their opportunities in two other matches against Conference USA this season. Against Houston, the Lady Tigers took the doubles point from the Cougars but lost two matches that went three sets in singles play in order for the Cougars to take the match from Memphis, 5-2. Against Tulane on Tuesday, Memphis took three singles matches to third sets but were unable to come away with a victory in one of the three matches.

Scouting UTEP
UTEP is led by Wenonika Bloczynska at the No. 1 position. The sophomore from Elblag, Poland, has posted a record of 16-3 at the top for the Miners. Along with Bloczynska, the Miners also have a strong bottom of the line-up. The No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 positions have collective record of 43-15 this season. Helping lead the way at the back is Marina DeLuca who is currently 18-2 on the season. Her sister, Carolina DeLuca, has also posted a solid record for UTEP, going 11-7.

Potential Rematch with SMU
If Memphis is able to pick up a win on Thursday they will face-off with the No. 1 seed SMU Mustangs on Friday. SMU beat Memphis, 7-0, early in the season before making a rise to No. 23 in the nation. SMU is led by freshman Marta Lesniak, the nations 57th-best singles player. Lesniak exploded onto the scene on Feb. 25, when she upset the nation's No. 4 singles netter, Aurelia Miseviciute of Arkansas in three sets in Fayetteville. Since then, Lesniak has put up nine singles wins, only losing one match to No. 84 Macall Harkins of TCU. Lesniak has also upset Yale's Janet Kim, who is also ranked in the latest ITA poll.

Memphis Projected Singles Line-up
No. 1- Ashley Murdock (15-9)
No. 2- Marjorie Ondeck (11-13)
No. 3- Amanda Brown (7-15)
No. 4- Kristin Chamberlain (4-8)
No. 5- Sarah Irvin (8-14)
No. 6- Lindsey Wiseman (5-5)

Memphis Projected Doubles Line-up
No. 1- Murdock/Ondeck (10-4)
No. 2- Wiseman/Brown (6-4)
No. 3- Chamberlain/Irvin (1-2)

UTEP Projected Singles Line-up
No. 1- Weronika Bloczynska (16-3)
No. 2- Martina Trierweiler (8-6)
No. 3- Carolina DeLuca (11-7)
No. 4- Marina DeLuca (18-2)
No. 5- Megan Pritchard (14-6)
No. 6- Ximena Fuentes (9-9)

UTEP Projected Doubles Line-up
No. 1- Prichard/Bloczynska (11-7)
No. 2- M. DeLuca/Fuentes (7-3)
No. 3- C. DeLuca/Michaud (2-1)

Conference USA Match Times

April 16, 2009
Match 1- No. 9 Memphis vs. No. 8 UTEP, 10 a.m.
Match 2- No. 12 Southern Miss vs. No. 5 Rice, 10 a.m.
Match 3- No. 10 Tulane vs. No. 7 UCF, 2 p.m.
Match 4- No. 11 UAB vs. No. 6 East Carolina, 2 p.m.

April 17, 2009
Match 5- No. 1 SMU vs. Memphis/UTEP, 10 a.m.
Match 6- No. 4 Houston vs. USM/Rice, 10 a.m.
Match 7- No. 2 Tulsa vs. Tulane/UCF, 2 p.m.
Match 8- No. 3 Marshall vs. UAB/ECU, 2 p.m.

April 18. 2009
Match 9- Semifinal 1, 12 p.m.
Match 10- Semifinal 2, 12 p.m.

April 19, 2009
Match 11- Championship Match, 10 a.m.