Feb. 12, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford men's and women's tennis teams opens the doors of their new tennis facility for the first time as they play host to in-state rival Jacksonville State on Tuesday. The Pat M. Courington Tennis Pavilion was recently completed, and the Samford Bulldogs now have a new home.

The facility was named in honor of 1946 Samford graduate Pat M. Courington, Sr., of Albertville, Ala. The facility houses three courts, offices, locker rooms and spectator seating and is part of Samford's new nine-court tennis center of the western perimeter of campus.

The Samford tennis teams, who were recently picked to win the Ohio Valley Conference, are ready to dive into conference play.

The Bulldog women come off an exciting fall season in which they participated in four fall tournaments hosted by the University of Alabama, North Carolina State, the University of Memphis, and Birmingham-Southern. Samford had exciting wins over players from Auburn, Alabama, NC State, Mississippi State, and several small schools with top programs.

The Samford men also had a solid fall season with strong performances at the Southern Intercollegiates hosted by the University of Georgia as well as in the UTC Fall Invitational, the South Carolina Invitational and the Birmingham-Southern Fall Invitational in which the Bulldogs took home a team championship.

Match play begins at 2 p.m. at the Pat M. Courington Tennis Pavilion located on the west end of campus. For a full recap of match results, visit www.samfordsports.com.