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LAFAYETTE, LA. – The Samford University women's tennis team will begin play in its two-match spring break road trip Tuesday at 2 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs square off against the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns in a midseason nonconference contest to be held at the Cajun Courts.
 
Samford (6-7) heads into the South Region showdown with aspirations of snapping a three-match losing streak. Since dominating Western Carolina, 7-0, on March 2, the Bulldogs have dropped hard-fought Southern Conference contests against Appalachian State, 4-3, No. 59 Elon, 6-1, and UNCG, 4-3.
 
In its heartbreaking decision against UNCG on March 10, Samford's singles rally came up just short in a SoCon road contest versus the Spartans held at the UNCG Tennis Courts.
 
Despite being swept in the doubles competition, Samford used a trio of singles victories from Kristin Lewis, Stephanie N'tcha and Emily Mallory to even the overall score of the match at 3-3.
 
The decisive singles contest of the day came down to court No. 4 where UNCG sophomore Stephanie Falcon squared off against the Bulldogs' true freshman Carita Moolman.
 
Moolman, Samford's native of Aranos, Namibia, won the first set by a score of 6-3, but then Falcon rallied back to take the second frame, 6-1. In the third set, Moolman and Falcon were knotted at 4-4 when the Spartans' native of Marietta, Ga., earned a break to garner a 5-4 advantage. With an additional point in the next game, UNCG's Falcon won the set, 6-4, to give the Spartans their 4-3 team victory.
 
Samford has struggled on the road this season and holds an 0-5 record when playing away from the Samford Tennis Center.
 
The Bulldogs' Mallory used her singles win against UNCG on March 10 to improve to 8-3 in dual-match play this season. Samford's Lewis defeated UNCG's Niltooli Wilkins on court No. 1, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, to move to 8-4 in singles play this year.
 
Louisiana-Lafayette (10-8) enters Tuesday's contest with hopes of snapping its current two-match losing streak. The Ragin' Cajuns picked up a huge 4-3 home victory against Youngstown State on Wednesday, but has since been defeated by Louisiana-Monroe, 4-3, on Friday and North Texas, 4-0, on Sunday.
 
In its loss to the Mean Green, Louisiana-Lafayette dropped the doubles point and then suffered singles defeats on the top three courts.
 
North Texas grabbed the doubles point by winning on courts No. 1 and No. 3 to take a 1-0 lead over the Ragin' Cajuns. In singles play, Kseniya Bardabush defeated Sophie van den Aarssen, 6-2, 6-0, at the No.1 position to increase the Mean Green advantage to 2-0.
 
North Texas pulled within a point from clinching the match on court No. 3 as Sandra Ahlqvist fell to Valentina Starkova, 6-1, 6-3. The Mean Green's Barbora Vykydalova then clinched the contest at No.2 singles besting freshman Nicole Breaux 6-2, 6-1 in straight sets.
 
Last season, Samford and Louisiana-Lafayette met in an early-season nonconference contest held at the Samford Tennis Center.
 
In the matchup held Jan. 28, 2012, the Bulldogs opened the meeting with a pair of doubles wins to earn the all-important doubles point. Samford then received singles victories from Lewis, Madelie Janse Van Rensburg, Rebecca Kirven, Lindsey Mallory and Emily Mallory to register the 6-1 win.
 
The Mallory sisters both won in straight sets for the Bulldogs, while the remaining three Samford singles triumphs occurred in three frames. Louisiana-Lafayette tallied its lone singles victory on court No. 3 as Milou Israel held on for a 6-4, 6-4, win against N'tcha.
 
Following Tuesday's key road test at Louisiana-Lafayette, the Samford University women's tennis team will continue its two-match Louisiana road swing Wednesday at 9 a.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs square off against the 50^th-ranked Tulane Green Wave in another regional matchup. Wednesday's contest will be held at Tulane's Goldring Tennis Center in New Orleans.

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