The 2005 Conference USA Women’s Tennis Championship concluded its opening day of tournament play at TCU's Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The four-day event concludes on Sunday, April 24 with the championship match scheduled for noon CST. Defending C-USA Champion Tulane, which currently holds a 20-5 overall record and has won 18 of its last 20 outings, is the top seed, while host TCU is the No. 2 seed. Both squads received a first-round bye. Teams advancing to the quarterfinals are Houston, DePaul, Louisville, East Carolina and UAB.

Fourth-seeded Houston defeated No. 13-seed Cincinnati, 4-0, in the opening round of the tournament, which advances the Cougars to the quarterfinals for the fifth consecutive year. UH will face DePaul on Friday at 3 p.m. (CST). Houston jumped to an early lead, claiming the doubles point, when the teams of Sarah Reimer/Yolandi Terblanche and Kami Miller/Diana Martin won their matches, 8-2 and 8-0, respectively. Senior Biljana Dimovska helped the Cougars quickly grab singles wins at the top three spots. At No. 1, Dimovska defeated Cincinnati's Cristina Reyes, 6-2, 6-1. UH's Martin posted a 6-2, 6-4 decision over Bearcats' Samantha Liu at No. 2, while freshman Brianna Bateup earned the final point of the match with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Cincinnati's Jill Klauck.

Fifth-seeded DePaul defeated No. 12-seed Memphis, 4-0, to advance to the quarterfinals to play Houston on Friday at 3 p.m. (CST). DePaul won all three doubles matches en route to jumping to a 1-0 lead over the Tigers. Cougar's tandem of Beatrix Csordas and Marina Parashkevova defeated Marlene Dirnstorfer and Brooke Cowie of Memphis, 8-4, at the No. 1 doubles spot. DPU's Gergana Ganeva and Petra Rehusova then beat the duo of Andrea Feichtinger and Alex Tjioe, 8-2, while Bojana Murisic and Anja Mihaldinec of DePaul grabbed an 8-1 win over Kristin Noble/Christina Wieser. As a third team All-Conference pick from last year, Parashkevova defeated Feichtinger, 6-1, 6-2, at the No. 2 spot. Ganeva defeated Tigers' Cowie, 6-1, 6-1, while Murisic defeated Tjioe, 6-0, 6-1, to help the Blue Demons grab singles wins at the No. 3 and No. 6 before advancing to the quarterfinals.

USF advances to second-day action following a 4-0 defeat of No. 14-seed Saint Louis and will play Louisville Friday at noon. The Bulls, which are seeded third, will have played in the quarterfinals each of the ten years of tournament history. USF took the doubles point to start the match as the team of Gabriele Duch and Neyssa Etienne defeated the Billikens Amanda Hellberg and Rachel McCullagh, 8-3 at the top seed. The Bulls team of Courtney Vernon and Liz Cruz beat Tina Grasso and Tara Grant, 8-1 at No. 2, while neither team posted a tandem to compete at No. 3. The Bulls' Duch swept McCullagh, 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3, while Cruz defeated Grasso at No. 4. Without an opponent, junior Luisa Obando claimed the finals singles win for her squad.

The Louisville Cardinals defeated No. 11-seed Marquette, 4-1 on Thursday. In their third consecutive 20-plus winning season, the Cardinals improved their overall record to 21-8 and will face USF on Friday at Noon (CST). Louisville began the match by taking the doubles point as Kelly Taylor and Natalie Laszkowski defeated Marquette's Maria Calberto and Dominika Dabrowski at No. 1 and the team of Suzanna Gracanin and Robyn White beat Erin Watkins and Elsemieke Dokter, 8-1 at the two spot. In singles action, Cardinals' Taylor defeated Caberto, 6-1, 6-4 at No. 3 to take a 2-0 lead. Laszkowski beat Golden Eagle Francina Bonnelly, 6-0, 6-4 at No. 4 and Gracanin clinched the match with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Dabrowski at No. 5.

East Carolina clinched a come-from-behind 4-2 win over Southern Miss to help the Pirates advance to the quarterfinals. ECU, which has recorded a winning season in 11 of the past 12 seasons, moves on to play the host TCU, which earned a first-round bye and is seeded second in the tournament. Southern Miss got an early start by clinching the doubles point with an 8-6 win by No. 3 tandem of Ali Blackett and Jennifer Sibille. The two defeated ECU's Raluca Baicu and Alex Smith. Golden Eagle duo of Nicola Slater and Grace Kammerer beat Mireia Gol and Luiza Borges at No 2, while the Pirates picked up their lone doubles match at No. 1 (Kristin Buchanan and Gillie Bailey) over USM's Sherry Price and Nikhila Narra. ECU's Gol grabbed the winning singles point to send the Pirates to the quarterfinals as the freshman defeated USM's Slater, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. In other single matches, Pirates' Bailey defeated Narra, 6-2, 7-5, Baicu beat Sibille, 6-2, 6-1 and Borges defeated Kammerer, 6-4, 6-3. For the Eagles' other point, Hannah Priest defeated Blackett at No. 6, 6-1, 6-3.

UAB pulled off an upset over seventh-seeded Charlotte, 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals. The Blazers improve their overall record to 13-5 and will face top-seeded Tulane, who is coming off three titles in the last four seasons, including back-to-back championships in 2003 and 2004. The match time is set for Friday at noon (CST). UAB began the match by taking the doubles point as Gulsah Esen and Ornischa defeated Charlotte's duo of Laura Swain, 8-1, and Ashleigh Murray and Julia von Somson and Annemieke Elshoz defeated Kathy Robey and Ofra Friedman, 8-5. The match-winning point came from Blazer's Elshoz, who defeated Ali Piacente, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 5 spot.

Coming off three titles in the last four seasons, including back-to-back championships in 2003 and 2004, the Green Wave will take on No. 10 UAB on Friday at noon.

No. 19 TCU, coming off three straight appearances in the C-USA final, including the 2002 Tournament title, earned the No. 2 seed, while USF, the No. 56 team in the country, garnered the No. 3 seed. The Horned Frogs concluded regular season play with an 18-3 overall record and hold wins over 12 ranked opponents.

The quarterfinals are Friday, April 22 beginning at noon, while the semifinals take place Saturday, April 23 beginning at noon. A ninth-place consolation round will also be played Friday and Saturday. The championship match is slated for Sunday, April 24 at noon. All main draw matches will take place at the Bayard H. Freeman Tennis Center. All times are Central.

For more information on the 2005 Conference USA Women’s Tennis Championship, please visit www.conferenceusa.com.