TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Samford University women's tennis team will compete in its final event of the 2014 fall season this weekend as the Bulldogs begin play Friday in the 27^th Roberta Alison Fall Classic to be held at the University of Alabama Tennis Complex.

The highly-competitive Roberta Alison Classic will be held Friday and Saturday, with Sunday slated as a "rain day" should some unexpected weather arise.
 
The field for this weekend's tournament will include Samford, host-school Alabama, Ball State, Chattanooga, DePaul, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Lipscomb, Loyola Marymount, LSU, Michigan, MTSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Northwestern, Troy, Tulane, UAB and Vanderbilt.
 
Matches are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. (CDT) on Friday and Saturday, and will be held at the Alabama Tennis Complex, the Alabama Rec Courts and potentially the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility (total of 24 courts).
 
The format for the 2014 Roberta Alison Fall Classic will consist of one round of doubles play Friday with two rounds of singles competition to follow. On Saturday, there will be two rounds of doubles play followed by the final round of singles. Each draw will consist of eight singles players or doubles teams.
 
Samford heads into this weekend's competition with a full head of steam after the Bulldogs turned in a number of outstanding performances at the Samford Fall Round Robin.
 
Two weeks ago, in one of its most dominant performances of the 2014 fall season, Samford closed out play in the Samford Fall Round Robin in impressive fashion as the Bulldogs registered a tournament-best four flight championship titles in the three-day, four-team competition held at the Samford Tennis Complex.
 
On the final day alone, the Bulldogs proved to be victorious in six of their eight matches against in-state rivals Troy and UAB. Samford took two out of three in doubles play from the Trojans, while nearly sweeping the Blazers, 4-1, in singles.
 
The Bulldogs concluded the highly-competitive fall tournament with a 6-3 record in doubles, as well as a 10-7 mark in singles play.
 
Of the three doubles flights, Samford won championship titles in two of them.
 
On court No. 2, the Bulldogs' combination of Jessica Northcutt and Lauren Caballero earned the trophy with a perfect 3-0 record. Samford also won the title on court No. 3 as the Bulldogs' Yasmeen Ebada and Savannah Wood also completed the tournament with an unblemished 3-0 mark.
 
In singles play, Samford's Northcutt also went 3-0 on court No. 3 to claim the championship title of the flight. Additionally, the Bulldogs' Wood posted a perfect 2-0 record in the No. 6 singles matchup to win her flight as well.
 
As a team, Samford tallied four of the nine flight championships, while South Alabama and Troy both followed with three apiece.
 
The Samford University women's tennis team will begin play in the 2014 Roberta Alison Fall Invitational on Friday at 9 a.m. (CDT) at the University of Alabama Tennis Complex.