March 19, 2008

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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall University's women's tennis team will continue its seven-match road trip when the Thundering Herd (12-4) travels to Williamsburg, Va. to face the 25th-ranked College of William and Mary (9-8) and the University of Pennsylvania (4-5), Friday and Saturday, at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center/Busch Courts.

The No. 62 Marshall squad will challenge its seventh ranked opponent of the season, Friday, with first serve set for 5 p.m. against William and Mary. The Herd holds a 2-4 record against ranked foes so far this season.

"We are going to play a tough William and Mary team with high rankings and results this season," Marshall's head coach John Mercer said. "But we look forward to the challenge."

In the latest rankings, the Tribe has four nationally-ranked singles players with two ranked doubles team. Megan Moulton-Levy ranks 10th while her teammates Klaudyna Kasztelaniec is at 113th, Krina Zoricic at 118th, and Ragini Acharya ranks 121st. The pair of Moulton-Levy and Zoricic stands as the 11th pair while Zoricic and Acharya are the 34th-ranked doubles team.

During the fall season, the Herd's 23rd-ranked pair of Kellie Schmitt (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Karolina Soor (Lindesberg, Sweden) defeated the number one nationally-ranked team of Moulton-Levy and Zoricic in the doubles finals at the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association East Women's Regional Championship to take the No. 1 East Regional ranking and a trip to the National Indoor Championships.

Following the Herd in the doubles East Regional ranking are Moulton-Levy as number two, Zoricic and Acharya are fifth, Acharya and Bresson stand at sixth, while Isabell Raich (Klaus, Austria) and Thaddea Lock (Bristol, England) hold the 10th-ranked slot.

Also in the East Regional rankings, Moulton-Levy stands as the number one singles player with Schmitt following as the number three. In the East Regional singles rankings, Acharya stands as number four, Zoricic five, Kasztelaniec 11th, and Magdalena Bresson 19th.

The Tribe leads the all-time series over the Herd 6-0, with a 7-0 victory in 2007.

The Herd will square-off against the Quackers, Saturday at 1 p.m. at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center/Busch Courts.

"Penn has high talented and competitive players with great results in the past," Coach Mercer added. "It will be a tough match but we look forward to the challenge."

In the latest rankings, Penn's Ekaterina Kosminskaya stands as the 103rd-ranked singles player while the Quackers duo of Julia Koulbitskaya and Kosminskaya holds the 24th-ranked doubles slot.

Kosminskaya also has an impressive resume with two European Team Championships (2002 and 2004), and two Orange Bowl in Doubles wins (2002 and 2003). She was also a doubles semifinalist in the 2004 Australian Open and Orange Bowl. She advanced to the third round of the 2004 Wimbledon Championship, appeared in the 2004 and 2005 US Open, and reached the second round of the 2005 Australian Open.

Also in the East Region, Kosminskaya ranks sixth, Yulia Rivelis stands at 12th, Koulbitskaya ranks 13th, and Charlotte Tansill holds the 14th slot. The pair of Kosminskaya/Koulbitskaya stands as the third doubles team in the East Region.

Penn holds a 1-0 all-time series advantage over Marshall with a 5-2 victory in 2007.

For the Herd, Schmitt (60th) holds a 15-1 record so far this season at the number one position. Soor stands 7-7 at mostly the number two mark, Raich at 10-6; Jeanne Schwartz (West Palm Beach, Fla.) is 9-7 at mostly the four spot, Lock is 9-5 at the five, Jessica Keener (Reston, Va.) stands 9-2 at mostly the six.

The 23rd-ranked pair of Schmitt and Soor stands at 13-1 playing the number one spot. Raich and Lock are at 7-8 at the two while Keener and Yulia Kashelkina (Moscow, Russia) holds an 11-4 record at the number three position.

Leading into the weekend, the Herd stands at 1-1 on the seven-match road trip so far with a 5-2 decision over Harvard and fell to the 54th-ranked Boston College squad, 4-3, last weekend.