McNeese Opens Season with Three Wins
McNeese State defeated Alcorn State 6-1 in their season opener Friday.

The Cowgirls took a 1-0 lead by winning all three doubles matches. The Cowgirls' no. 1 doubles team of Ralista Pirdopska and Victoria Martinez defeated Adriele Buchman and Katherine Hoepelman 8-4. McNeese's Petra Gudelj and Maria Frausto defeated Kalinina Sandoval and Nancy Gonzales 8-0 in the no. 2 doubles and Kwynn Biggs and Ilona Serchenko defeated Alcorn's Claudia Gonzales and Dasia Rud 8-2 at the no. 3 doubles.

The Cowgirls continued their dominance in singles play by winning five of six matches. Pirdopska, Serchenko, Martinez, Frausto and Biggs were all winners in their respective singles match with straight set victories.

Gudelj dropped her no. 4 singles match in a tie-breaker to Hoepelman 6-3, 3-6, 5-10.

McNeese State picked up its second victory in as many days with a 7-0 win over Loyola.

The Cowgirls won all three doubles matches for a 1-0 overall match lead then cruised to six victories in singles play. The Cowgirls lost only three games in singles play and Vicky Martiniez, Petra Gudelj and Tea Tvrtkovic won their matches without losing a game by the scores of 6-0, 6-0. Martinez defeated Frances Bonnin at the no. 3 singles, Gudelj defeated Frances Sweeney at no. 4 and Tvrtkovic defeated Katie Beargie at no. 5.

McNeese State remained undefeated Sunday with a 7-0 victory over Xavier.

McNeese swept through the doubles with ease with Victoria Martinez and Ralista Pirdopska, and Maria Frausto and Petra Gudelj winning the no. 1 and no. 2 matches by an 8-3 score, respectively.

The Cowgirls' no. 3 doubles team comprised of Kwynn Biggs and Ilona Serchenko cruised to an 8-0 victory.

The Cowgirls won four singles matches in straight sets with Martinez, Gudelj, Frausto and Biggs picking up singles victories.

The Cowgirls will travel to UL-Lafayette Friday for a 2 p.m. match before returning home on Feb. 20 to host Louisiana Tech.

Islanders Top off Long Weekend with First Conference Win
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi completed a long weekend on Sunday night with a 5-1 win over Central Arkansas to open the Southland Conference slate. The Islanders played four matches in four days, going 3-1 against the grueling schedule.

"This was a very good end to a pretty long weekend," said Director of Tennis Steve Moore. "We were definitely tired and I am proud of the way they came out very focused."

TAMUCC is now 4-2 on the season while Central Arkansas lost what was its opening match and is now 0-1 on the year. The match was played at the Seay Tennis Center in Dallas, being moved up a day due to the threat of weather.

"We talk a lot as a team about playing every point tough and not giving anything away," said Moore. "That's always your intent but that needs to be emphasized even more at the end of a long trip when you're tired.

 "You're never 100 percent satisfied unless every girl plays every point with intensity but I was pretty happy overall."

Sophomore Mirna Cicak opened the action by winning at No. 1 singles over Petra Keilova by a 6-1, 6-2 final. Freshman Doris Kuselj continued her season-long unbeaten streak at No. 2 singles, improving to 6-0 on the year with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Lisa Mainz.  Bianca Discordia followed with another win in short order, winning at No. 3 singles by a 6-2, 6-1 final over Kazumi Otani to put the Islanders up 3-0 early on.

"We got especially tough focused efforts from Mirna and Doris at the No. 1 and 2 positions," said Moore. "I felt like they really came out and took care of business."

Another freshman, Adrienne Kovacs, clinched the match for TAMUCC by winning a 6-4, 6-2 match over Lindsay Short. UCA picked up its only point at No. 4 singles as Allison Hartman won 6-3, 6-4 over LeAnne Mascall. In the final match to finish, Megan Harless did a great job of holding off her opponent in the only three-set contest of the day, winning No. 6 singles 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 over Alex Rios.

"I thought Megan competed with a lot of heart and savvy today," said Moore. "She played a very, very smart tiebreaker to win the match."

The two teams did not play doubles because the match was moved indoors due to weather and time constraints.

The next match for the Islanders will be Thursday at Louisiana-Lafayette.

Lamar Picks up Two Wins in Three Matches
Lamar opened its 2010 season with a pair of wins Friday.

The Lady Cardinals started the day with a 6-1 win over St. Edward's before claiming a 7-0 victory over

Tyler Junior College. St. Edward's was ranked 14th in the nation in the preseason Division II poll.

Mariayeni Gutierrez won at first singles for Lamar in the first match before posting a win at second singles against Tyler. Kaltrina Harbauzi won at second singles against St. Edward's and at first singles against Tyler.

Sunday, Mariaryeni Gutierrez and Kaltrina Harbuzzi won at singles for Lamar, but it wasn't enough for the Lady Cardinals in a 5-2 loss to visiting Louisiana-Monroe.

Gutierrez was a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Lena Satge at first singles, while Harbuzzi posted a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Sidney Bruscato at second singles.

Gutierrez teamed with Manijee Ashrafi to win at first singles for Lamar (2-1), but Louisiana-Monroe (2-0) won at second and third doubles to claim the doubles point.

Lamar returns to action Saturday to host Nicholls in a Southland Conference match.

UTSA Wins Two of Four Matches in El Paso
UTSA went unbeaten on Friday to open up this weekend's matches against Montana State and UMKC with 5-2 ledgers.

The Roadrunners started out the morning by grabbing the doubles point from the Bobcats.

Sophomore Micaela Silva teamed with freshman Vivian Carrillo at the No. 1 spot to outlast Andrea De La Torre and Charlotta Hjalmarsson, 9-7. At the No. 3 position, freshman-sophomore duo of Kavya Menon and Katie Ottenbreit defeated Jennifer Coll and Lucy Fairbotham, 8-3.

With an edge over MSU from the doubles victory, UTSA was victorious in four singles to drive the score to 5-2.

The second match of the day was also victorious for UTSA as it defeated UMKC, 5-2.

The Roadrunners took the 1-0 lead against the Kangaroos winning the doubles point. Menon and Ottenbreit made quick work of Laura Bouet and Jillian Yakominich, 8-1, at the No. 3 position. However, UMKC made things interesting at the No. 2 slot, but Silva and Carrillo sealed the deal with an 8-6 win at the top spot.

In singles action, Silva gave UTSA the 2-0 advantage with a straight set (6-2, 6-1) win against Chelsea Horner at No. 1. Eva Dalvai cut the deficit 2-1 with her 6-3, 6-2 victory against Maffezzolli at the No. 2 position.

The Roadrunners claimed the match when Menon and Ottenbreit stepped off the court with straight set triumphs at the No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively. Carrillo, who was also in action, defeated Suzan Lisenby by scores of 4-6, 7-5 and 6-3 at No. 4 singles.

Saturday, UTSA dropped a 5-2 decision to Montana.

The afternoon started out rough for UTSA, as the Grizzlies won the doubles point.

Montana clinched the point with wins at the Nos. 1 and 2 spots, but Ottenbreit teamed with freshman Kavya Menon to defeat Constance Alexander and Cara Lehman, 8-2, to give UTSA some momentum heading into singles play.

UTSA suffered losses at each of the top four slots, which gave UM the victory.

Junior Caroline Dedering took her No. 3 contest into a tie-breaker, but Amanda Bran was able to post a 6-4, 7-6 (5), 10-4 victory. Sophomore Micaela Silva also made a valiant effort at the No. 1 position against Rebecca Bran but fell just short 4-6, 6-1, 2-6.

UTSA finished the weekend with a 7-0 loss at Air Force Sunday.

The Roadrunners dropped to 2-3 on the season, while the Falcons improved to 7-1 on the year.

Air Force took the 1-0 lead after claiming the doubles point by sweeping all three matches.

In singles action, the Falcons won all six singles matches in straight sets. Christen Monreal made it a 2-0 lead for Air Force with a 6-2, 6-2 win over sophomore Micaela Silva. The Falcons then clinched the win at No. 4 and No. 3, respectively.

UTSA returns home for its 2010 home season opener against Abilene Christian on Feb. 13 and then against St. Edward's the following day.

Texas State Defeats UT Pan American 6-1
Texas State won five singles matches and earned the doubles point to defeat UT-Pan American by a score 6-1 Saturday.

The Bobcats opened the day winning one doubles match and earning the point when UT Pan American defaulted in another match. Texas State won the second-seeded doubles match when Mariana Perez and Gabriela Rojas defeated Sarah Burton and Nina Ciric by a score of 8-4.

UTPA won a hard-fought victory in the top doubles match when Megan Bedeau and Luisa Cantu defeated Texas State's Andrea Giraldo and Melissa Hadad by a score of 8-6.

But, Texas State won the doubles point when Nyssa Peele and Mariana Charalambous won the third-seeded match by default.

In singles play, Andrea Giraldo won her first match of the season to improve her record to 1-2 when she defeated Megan Bedeau 10-7 in the third set of the top singles match. They split the first two sets as Giraldo won the first set 6-4 and lost the second set by a score of 7-6 when Bedeau won the tiebreaker 2-0.

With the victory, Texas State evened its overall record to 2-2. The Bobcats will play their first home match of the 2010 spring season Saturday against Trinity.

Tulane Hands Southeastern First Loss, 6-1
Southeastern Louisiana sophomore Annika Hanke improved to 2-0 in singles play on Saturday, but the Lady Lions were unable to get past Tulane, dropping a 6-1 decision in non-conference women's tennis action at the Goldring Tennis Center.

The Lady Lions fell to 1-1 overall on the season, as Hanke was the lone Lady Lion to earn a win. Tulane (2-1) won the remainder of the singles matches and all three doubles matches.

"I thought we played well today," Southeastern head coach Jason Hayes commened. "There are a few things we need to do better, but Tulane is a very good team. The scoreboard won't show how hard we fought, but I'm proud of our effort today."

Hanke, a Lauchheim, Germany native, helped Southeastern avoid a shutout. Playing at the No. 5 position, she outlasted Tulane's Emma Helisten, 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 10-7.

"It was a great win for Annika," Hayes said. "She has worked very hard this fall and it was good to see her get this win."

Tulane won the remainder of their matches in singles play and swept doubles. The most competitive doubles match was at No. 2, where Lady Lions Mia Hagiu and Camille Pilon dropped an 8-4 decision to Helisten and Lindsay Dvorak.

The Lady Lions will return to New Orleans Monday, facing University of New Orleans at 2 p.m.

Sam Houston State Has Tough Weekend in El Paso
Giorgia Pozzan, Tatyana Postnikova and Nadia Dubyanskaya all won their singles matches but Arkansas State also won three singles and took the doubles point to edge Sam Houston in the first dual match at the UTEP Classic Friday afternoon.

Dubyanskaya and Cally Woerner won their doubles pro set at the number two position 8-4. Pozzan knocked off the Red Wolves' number one player Jenny Henning 6-4 6-3.

Postnikova won in straight sets of Rene van Wyk 6-3 7-5 and Dudyanskaya took a three-set win 6-4 3-6 7-5 over Menna Kamal.

UTEP's Dariya Adrakhmaova had to rally for a singles victory decided in a third set tiebreaker to edge the short-handed Sam Houston State, 4-3 on the second day of the Miner Tennis Classic.

Giorgia Pozzan, Tatyana Postnikova and Nadia Dubyanskaya gave the Bearkats their three points with wins at number one, three and four singles. Adrakhamova defeated Sheridan Currie 6-4 5-7 7-6 at number two singles.

The Bearkats played with only five players due to an injury and were forced to default the number three doubles and number six singles.

Cally Woerner and Dubyanskaya won at number two doubles by an 8-4 margin.

Illinois State defeated Sam Houston 6-1 Sunday morning to wrap up play for the Bearkats in the UTEP Miner Tennis Classic.

Giorgia Pozzan produced the only point for the Bearkats by winning the number one singles over Aniko Kiss 6-1 6-3.

Sheridan Currie and Tatyana Postnikova both lost close matches at number two and three singles, respectively. Each split sets with their Illinois State opponent then lost in a super-tiebreaker for the third set and match. Currie fell 6-4 3-6 1-0 (10-5) to Julia Zukkova and Postnikova dropped a tough 7-6 4-6 1-0 (10-6) decision to Natalia Lech.