April 25, 2008

Results

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Lamar University women's tennis team opened the Southland Conference tournament with a 4-0 victory over the University of Texas-Arlington Mavericks at the Schleif Tennis Complex on the campus of Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas.

The Lady Cardinals opened the match by claiming the doubles point when Maria Gutierrez and Manijee Ashrafi combined for an 8-5 win over Daiana Negreanu and Sara Pesic at No. 2 doubles. The other win for LU came by way of default at No. 3, as UTA did not have enough players to play the match. The No. 1 tandem of Andrea Martinez and Mariaryeni Gutierrez were leading 7-6 in the match against Monika Hadvigerova and Klara Jagosova when the double point was decided.

In singles play Lamar only needed one point to seal the victory because the mavericks were conceding two points from No. 5 and No. 6 by not playing the matches. Maria Gutierrez punched the LU ticket to the semi finals with a straight sets 6-2, 6-3 victory over Pesic at No. 4. The other three matches being played by Martinez, Mariaryeni Gutierrez and Harbuzi went unfinished.

"Today's match was a real fight for us," head coach David Wong said. "UT-Arlington played very well and gave us all we could handle in the top three spots in our lineup. Our ladies were playing good tennis, but Arlington was playing exceptional.

"Maria Gutierrez really stepped up and pulled this team through today. She played very solid tennis and was responsible for picking up the two wins we had to have. In singles play she made sure that we were going to make it to the next round and in doubles play she and Manijee (Ashrafi) played a great match."

With the win the Lady Cardinals advance tot eh semifinals where they will take on No. 3 seed Northwestern State at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Lamar defeated the Lady Demons 6-1 two weeks ago in Natchitoches, La.