Day one of the 2003 Conference USA Women’s Tennis Championship got underway with a pair of upsets as 10th-seeded Marquette defeated seventh-seeded DePaul, 4-2, and ninth-seeded East Carolina posted a 4-1 victory over eighth-seeded UAB. In the midday matches, fourth-seeded Memphis rolled a 4-0 win over 14th-seeded Southern Miss, while third-seeded Houston registered a 4-1 victory over 13th-seeded Saint Louis. In the final matches of the day, fifth-seeded South Florida defeated 12th-seeded Charlotte, 4-2, and sixth-seeded Louisville outlasted 11th-seeded Cincinnati, 4-3.

At Tulane’s Goldring Tennis Center, Marquette (4-16) opened its match with DePaul (17-9) by winning the doubles point with wins at the No. 2 and 3 spots. The Golden Eagle combo of Veronica Briseno and Gen Charron upended the Blue Demon pair of Nathalie Matko and Brenda Leung, 8-4, in the No. 2 doubles match. MU’s duo of Annabelle Espinosa and Eva Trujillo defeated the DePaul tandem of Rachel Dybas and Megan Stewart, 8-4, in the No. 3 doubles match.

Trujillo, along with Briseno and Charron helped MU seal the win with victories at the No. 2, 4 and 6 singles slots, respectively. Marquette moves on to face second-seeded TCU at noon (CST) at Tulane, while DePaul moves into the losers bracket and will face to be determined opponent on Monday at 9 a.m. (CST) at Goldring.

At the Dillard University Tennis Center, ECU (14-7) rallied to win after dropping the doubles point to UAB (10-7). The Pirates made up ground in singles play as Lyndall Jordan posted a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over the Blazers’ Femke deBoer at No. 2 singles. At No. 3 singles, ECU’s Raluca Baicu defeated UAB’s Yvonne Ernst, 7-5, 6-3. East Carolina’s Emily Kohl and Cristina Meilicke round out the Pirate win with victories at No. 5 and 6 singles, respectively.

ECU advances to meet top-seeded Tulane at 3 p.m. (CST) on Sunday at the Green Wave's Goldring Tennis Center. UAB moves into the losers bracket and will play on Monday at noon against a to be determined opponent at Dillard.

At Dillard, Houston (11-8) took a 1-0 lead on Saint Louis (9-12) when the doubles tandems of Analia Longoni and Kami Miller and Karine Urbin and Sarah Flood tallied wins in the No. 2 and 3 matches, respectively. The Cougars’ Miller then secured the team victory with a 6-2, 6-1 win at the No. 4 singles position over SLU’s Melissa Cutler. Also earning singles wins for UH on Saturday were Longoni at No. 2 and Flores Bravo at No. 3.

The Cougars move on to face South Florida on Sunday at 3 p.m (CST) at Dillard. Saint Louis falls into the losers bracket and will face Charlotte on Sunday at 9 a.m. (CST) at Dillard.

At Tulane, Memphis swept the double point by winning the No. 1 and 2 matches. Memphis' Sabrina Lindemann sealed the team victory by posting a 6-2, 7-5 at No. 1 singles. Monica Gonzalez-Gordo and Viktoria Gruber also tallied singles wins at the No. 2 and 4 spots.

The Tigers (15-6) will face Louisville on Sunday at the Dillard University Tennis Center, while Southern Miss (8-11) falls into the losers bracket and will face Cincinnati match on Sunday at 9 a.m. (CST) at Tulane.

Charlotte (8-13) took the early lead over South Florida by winning the doubles point with a pair of wins at the No. 1 and 3 slots by the teams of Ashleigh Murray and Laura Swain and Marilyn Clark and Stacie Luders, respectively.

The Bulls (10-10) rebounded in singles play to win the match. Fabiana Taverna and Patricia Kolendo won in the top two singles slots for USF, while the bottom half of the lineup helped secure the team victory with Talia Romero, Gina Craig and Belen Pandre winning at No. 4, 5 and 6 singles, respectively, for the Bulls.

The Cardinals (20-6) took a 1-0 advantage by capturing the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and 2 spots.

UC (10-11) got back into the match with wins by Khushchehr Italia at No. 2 singles, Jill Klauck at No. 5 singles and Julie Klauck at No. 6 singles.

U of L countered with wins at No. 1 singles by Marie Louise Frolich-Hansen and Melisa San Martin at No. 4 singles.

The match was decided at the No. 2 singles match between Louisville's Kelly Taylor and Cincinnati's Lyndsey Moloney. Moloney got to a one-set lead take the first, 6-3, before Taylor stormed back to win the second and third sets, 6-4, 6-4.