March 18, 2011

NEW ORLEANS - The Samford University women's tennis team will begin play in a two-match weekend road trip Saturday as the Bulldogs square off against the University of New Orleans (UNO) Privateers at 2 p.m. (CDT) in a non-conference contest to be held at the University Tennis Center. Samford (9-1) will then close out the weekend with a match Sunday versus Tulane at noon.

The Bulldogs enters Saturday's contest riding the positive momentum of a three-match winning streak. Since suffering its lone loss of the 2011 campaign, a 4-3 Southern Conference defeat at UNC Greensboro, Samford has earned consecutive victories against Western Carolina, UT Martin and Murray State.

In their most recent outing held March 12 at the Samford Tennis Center, the Bulldogs registered a doubleheader sweep versus UT Martin and Murray State.

Samford's Taylor Morgan was recently named the SoCon Player of the Month. A senior from Jacksonville State, Morgan finished last week with an unblemished 4-0 mark in the singles and doubles competitions as the Bulldogs posted convincing non-conference win over UT-Martin (6-1) and Murray State (7-0).

Morgan opened the week with a 6-2, 6-0 win over UT Martin's Jodie Tiley at No. 1 singles. She then improved to 6-3 at the position with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Murray State's Cassidy Cunitz. Morgan has now won her last three singles matches.

She also teamed with Lindsey Mallory at No. 1 doubles position and posted back-to-back wins for Samford. Morgan and Mallory held off UT-Martin's Tiley and Anna Marie Herbold, 8-4. The Samford duo then topped Murray State's team of Cunitz and Ashley Canty, 8-4. Morgan and Mallory are now 7-3 at No. 1 doubles in the spring.

UNO (2-4) enters the weekend with aspirations of bouncing back from a 5-0 home loss to Rutgers on Saturday.

In the defeat, the Privateers dropped all six contested matches against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights claimed both doubles matches with Amy Zhang and Jennifer Holzberg defeating Amber Garza and Kozue Matsumoto 8-5 at No. 1 with Leonora Slatnick and Stefania Balasa picking up an 8-3 win at the No. 2 court over Kristina Martic and Sofija Karalic.

In singles' play, Rutgers did not yield a single set to the Privateers. Zhang won 6-2, 6-2 over Matsumoto at No. 1 while Morgan Ivey was a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Garza at the No. 3 court. Singles' matches at No. 2 and No. 4 provided a similar 6-4, 6-4 result with Holzberg defeating Martic at No. 2 and Maryana Milchutskey picking up the victory over Karalic.

Following Saturday's non-conference match at UNO, the Samford University women's tennis team will next be in action Sunday at noon (CDT) as the Bulldogs face off against the Tulane Green Wave in a showdown to be held at the Goldring Tennis Center.