April 11, 2008

MILWAUKEE - The Marquette University women's tennis team will travel to Notre Dame, Ind., this weekend to take on a pair nationally ranked BIG EAST counterparts in No. 61 DePaul and No. 16 Notre Dame. Doubles action against the Blue Demons will begin Saturday at 10 a.m., and the Golden Eagles will face the Fighting Irish at 9 a.m., on Sunday. The matches are the Golden Eagles' final matches prior to the BIG EAST Tournament, which begins on April 17 in Tampa, Fla.

MU (11-11 overall, 5-1 BIG EAST) enters the match against DePaul as winners of its last four matches. Freshman Rachael Hush has recorded the most singles wins this season, posting a 15-13 overall record, 11-6 in dual play. Classmate Christina Ruiz follows closely with a 14-11 overall season record.

On the doubles side, the pairs of Ruiz and senior Maria Calbeto, and senior Erin Watkins and Hush and Erin Watkins are on top with winning records. Calbeto and Ruiz are 7-5 overall, while Hush and Watkins are 9-6, 3-1 in conference play.

The Blue Demons (16-4, 5-0) will put their undefeated conference record on the line Saturday morning. On the singles side, four players have posted 20-plus win campaigns this season in Gergana Ganeva (20-9), Selma Salkovic (25-7), Katarina Milinkovic (20-9), and Kirsten Gambrell (23-10). The duos of Gambrell and Dunja Antunovic and Salkovic-Beatrix Csordas have each posted the team's best doubles' records of 15-4 and 11-2, respectively.

MU and DePaul have faced nine common opponents this season, with DePaul winning six matches and Marquette five. The Golden Eagles fell to the Blue Demons, 4-3, in the two team's last meeting.

The Fighting Irish (16-8, 3-0) and Golden Eagles will compete on Sunday in both team's regular season finale. Notre Dame boasts two nationally ranked singles players in No. 41 Kelcy Tefft and No. 122 Cosmina Ciobanu, and the No. 1 doubles team in the nation, Tefft and Brook Buck, according to the latest ITA rankings.