April 20, 2007

Box Score

TULSA, Okla. - Third-seeded No. 63 Marshall advanced to Saturday's semifinals with its 4-0 sweep of UTEP Friday afternoon at the 2007 C-USA Women's Tennis Championship being held at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Houston. The Herd grabbed the doubles point for the early advantage and won singles matches in the middle of the lineup to seal the win.

UTEP started slowly against the talented Marshall squad as Weronika Bloczynska and Megan Pritchard battled hard at No. 1 doubles, but eventually fell to Kellie Schmitt and Lynzee Kever, 8-5.

The Miners evened things up No. 2 doubles when Isabela Kulaif and Marina Deluca grinded out an 8-6 win against Karolina Soor and Thaddea Lock.

MU secured the point, though, courtesy of Jessica Keener and Yulia Kashelkina when the duo downed Amber Brightly and Samantha Attard, 8-2.

Following the break, the Herd quickly went up 2-0 when Lock defeated Pritchard at No. 5 in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. Lock improved to 10-3 at No. 5 this spring and 13-6 overall.

Kever then pushed the Marshall lead to 3-0 with her straight-set win over Katherine Palider 6-2, 6-2.

Yulia Kashelkina scored the match clinching win over Marina DeLuca at No. 3, 6-2, 6-4. The win was her seventh of the season at No. 3 and her 10th overall.

Marshall head coach John Mercer was glad to come away with a win in his team's first trip to Tulsa

"We did good for having never played here before," Mercer said. "We had to get used to the conditions a little bit, but it is always nice to get a win and work out the first-match nerves a little bit."

Marshall will take on the No. 10 Rice at 2 p.m. CT in Saturday's second semifinal match-up and improved to 15-11 on the year. UTEP concludes the year at 13-9, equaling the second-highest win total since the program's inception in 1983-84.