March 29, 2008

MONTGOMERY, Ala. ---- The Samford women's tennis team split its final matches Friday and Saturday in the Blue-Gray Jamboree hosted by Auburn University-Montgomery. The Bulldogs defeated Columbus State, 6-3, on Friday night and fell to Valdosta State, 5-4, on Saturday afternoon. Division I Samford played Division II teams all weekend, so they played an unfamiliar nine-point system of Division II tennis play.

"We played three very good teams this weekend, which will hopefully help us the next three weekends," Samford head coach David Vest said. "That was the whole point in playing such a tough tournament, so that we could get some good matches in before we play the rest of our conference schedule. I am very proud of the effort and fight that we put up in all three matches. These were three of the toughest teams we have played all season." In the match with No. 12 Columbus State, the Bulldogs got off to a 2-1 advantage, winning two of three doubles matches. Taylor Morgan fell at the No. 1 court and Andrie Meiring had her 14-match win streak broken at the No. 2 position, but Anna Jackson, Katie Weaver, Rebecca Kirvin and Lindsey Mallory all picked up wins in the back four court to give Samford the 6-3 win.

"Columbus State is a much better team than they are ranked," Vest said. "We had to really dig deep to pull out the 3-6 singles matches. There was a time that we could have easily lost the match by the same score."

On Saturday, No. 2 Valdosta took a 3-0 lead after the doubles portion of the match. Morgan got the Bulldogs back in the match with a win over No. 8 Dominique Rothlaender at the No. 1 court. Jackson picked up another win at the No. 3 court while Kirven defeated No. 31 Karine Redon at the No. 4 court. Lindsey Mallory also added a point for the Bulldogs, winning at the No. 6 court.

"This [Valdosta] was definitely not one of our better showings in doubles, but it was one of our best showings of the season in singles play," said Vest. "Losing all three doubles matches really gave Valdosta an advantage going into the singles, especially considering we were using the nine-point scoring system. Taylor (Morgan) beat a very strong player by beating the eighth-ranked singles player in Division II, and Rebecca (Kirven) had a great comeback to win her match against the 31st- ranked player. In reality we lost the match using the nine-point scoring system, but would have won it using the seven-point system. We did a great job of taking four of six singles matches against a very good Valdosta team."

The Bulldogs get back into Ohio Valley Conference action Friday, April 4, as they are hosted by Murray State at 2 p.m. Samford then heads to Eastern Illinois on Saturday and Southeast Missouri on Sunday.

Samford 6, Columbus State
Friday, March 28, 2008

Doubles
1. No. 19 Polcyn/Lindsey Groenewald def. Jackson/Weaver, 9-7
2. Morgan/Mallory def. Vasilescu/Dondera, 9-8
3. Meiring/Kirven def. Reynolds/Castillo, 8-2

Singles
1. No. 3 Agata Polcyn def. Taylor Morgan , 1-6, 6-2, 7-5
2. No. 5 Roxana Dondera def. Andrie Meiring, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
3. Anna Jackson def. Gabriela Vasilescu, 6-4, 7-6
4. KatieWeaver def. Daniela Castillo, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1
5. Rebecca Kirven def. Erin Reynolds , 6-2, 6-2
6. Lindsey Mallory def. Tamiris Diversi, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2

Valdosta State 5, Samford 4
Saturday, March 29, 2008

Doubles
1. Rothlaender/Trautmann def. Jackson/Weaver, 8-5
2. No. 6 Durante/Redon def. Morgan/Mallory, 8-1
3. Natali Gumbrecht/Brees def. Meiring/Kirven, 8-5

Singles
1. Taylor Morgan def. No. 8 Dominique Rothlaender, 7-6, 6-4
2. No. 4 Raphaelle Durante def. Andrie Meiring, 6-4, 6-4
3. Anna Jackson def. Tina Trautmann, 6-2, 6-4
4. Rebecca Kirven def. No. 31 Karine Redon, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4
5. Hollie Brees def. Katie Weaver, 6-2, 6-3
6. Lindsey Mallory def. Sonya Haggstro, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4