April 21, 2007

Box Score

TULSA, Oklahoma - No. 1 seed Tulsa used a 4-0 sweep over No. 5 Southern Miss in Saturday's first semifinal match-up to advance to Sunday's championship match at the 2007 C-USA Women's Tennis Championship being held at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the campus of the Uiversity of Tulsa. The 44th ranked Golden Hurricane is now 20-4 this spring, which is one of the best records in program history.

The No. 1 doubles tandem of Kindsay Grimes and Carla Zabaleta gave Tulsa the early edge with their 8-2 win. The duo improved to 15-6 overall and 8-3 at the top spot with the win.

Doubles play was halted minutes later when TU's Santie Delport and Marta Marcinkowska downed Stephanie Dellocono and Lauren Gutterman at No. 2, 8-4. The win was the pair's 10th at the middle spot and team-leading 16th on the year.

In singles, Tulsa quickly closed out the match with three straight-set wins. Marcinkowska was the first to finish at No. 6 with her 6-3, 6-2 win over Gutterman. The freshman improved to 4-1 at the six position.

Delport then pushed the TU lead to 3-0 when she downed Brittany Serret 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2. The win was the South African native's ninth on the spring at No. 2 and 17th overall.

Agostina Santoro claimed her 19th win of the spring and sealed the victory for her team with her win at No. 5. She defeated Grace Kemmerer 6-0, 6-3.

Tulsa Head coach Dean Orford thought his team took care of business in order to reach the final.

"We played better today in the second round," Orford said. "The ladies handled their matches very, very well and took care of business in preparation for the final. We needed to get win in some straight-set matches and that is what we were able to do."

The Golden Hurricane will play the winner of Saturday's second semifinal between No. 3 Marshall and No. 10 Rice for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Tulsa also reached its first ever Conference USA Championship final with the win and will play for a chance to make its third NCAA Championship appearance in program history.

The Golden Eagles were making their fist ever C-USA women's tennis championship semifinal and concluded their regular season at 17-5, also one the program's best single-season records.