March 8, 2012

Results

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University women's tennis team's home winning streak came to an end at 13-straight matches Thursday as the Bulldogs were defeated by the College of Charleston Cougars, 6-1, in a Southern Conference-opening contest held at the Samford Tennis Center.

With the loss, Samford (8-2, 0-1 SoCon) dropped its first home match in nearly a year. The Bulldogs' previous setback at the Samford Tennis Center occurred March 27, 2011, in a hard-fought 4-3 defeat against Furman. Since then, Samford tallied 13-consecutive home victories, including eight-straight wins to open the 2012 dual-match season.

College of Charleston (5-4, 1-0 SoCon) bounced back from a 5-2 loss at No. 57-ranked Tulane on Tuesday. The Cougars have completed each of their last two SoCon schedules with unblemished 10-0 records and picked up their first win of the 2012 conference season Thursday.

Samford battled back to clinch the doubles point and took an early 1-0 lead against College of Charleston.

In the No. 1 doubles contest, the Bulldogs' tandem comprised of Kristin Lewis and Lindsey Mallory improved to 9-1 this season as they rallied for an 8-6 triumph against the Cougars' pairing of Jamie Harrell and Irene Viana. Samford's true freshman duo of Stephanie N'tcha and Adri Lochner then clinched the all-important doubles point by tallying a thrilling 9-7 win on court No. 3.

With their decisive victory, the Bulldogs' combination of N'tcha and Lochner improved to 5-2 in doubles play this season.

"I thought we played a solid doubles point, especially after finding ourselves down a break on all three courts," said Samford head coach David Vest. "Our freshman doubles team of Stephanie N'tcha and Adri Lochner, playing the No. 3 spot, did a great job of staying tough once the doubles point came down to them."

The Bulldogs led the SoCon-opening match by a score of 1-0 after doubles play, but fell short in all six singles contests as College of Charleston posted its final 6-1 victory.

"I was disappointed with our singles performance today, especially after coming from behind to earn a hard-fought doubles point," Vest said. "We just came out very flat and College of Charleston really took advantage of our lack of intensity. As always, the College of Charleston team competed very well and we just didn't match that on some of the courts."

The Samford University women's tennis team will next be in action Saturday at 2 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs continue play in their four-match, SoCon-opening homestand against the Georgia Southern Eagles in an early-season league contest to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.