April 19, 2008

Box Score

HOUSTON - Saturday's first semifinal match of the 2008 Conference USA Women's Tennis Championship, saw defending champion and top-seeded Tulsa down No. 4 SMU, 4-0, to advance to Sunday's championship match. TU was led by strong performances from the bottom of its lineup.

Doubles play began with the Golden Hurricane taking wins at spots two and three. Rebecca Row and Jie Zeng were finished first after defeating Sarah Acosta and Lindsey Norman, 8-1.

At No. 2, SMU's Kristen Reid and Nicole Briceno jumped out to an early advantage, but were unable to sustain the momentum and ultimately fell to Thalia Diaz-Barriga and Marta Marcinkowska, 8-4.

With the doubles point decided, play shifted to singles and Tulsa used wins at Nos. 5 and 6 to stretch its lead to 3-0.

Marcinkowska made quick work of Norman at No. 5, 6-0, 6-0, while Agostina Santoro downed Acosta at No. 6, 6-1, 6-1

The top spots in both lineups were then left to battle it out as SMU knew it needed to win out to advance to the championship match.

SMU's Pavi Francis, Reid and Briceno all dropped their first sets, but were right there in the fight in all of their second sets as the match was called.

No. 125 Alexandra Kichoutkin proved to be too much for SMU's Natalia Bubien (No. 105) at No. 1 and walked away with the straight-set 7-5, 6-1 win.

Tulsa (20-5) will now play in its second consecutive C-USA Women's Tennis Championship match. They await the winner of Saturday's second semifinal between No. 2 Marshall and No. 3 Rice.

Tulsa downed Marshall in last year's championship match and did not face them in the regular season. Tulsa also has not seen Rice this season.

Second-year head coach Lauren Longbotham-Meisner and the Mustangs finish their injury riddled year at 11-10. SMU played the majority of the season without two of its top players, as they were lost to knee and wrist surgery, respectively. It was the team's second trip to the C-USA semifinals in three seasons.