BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University women's tennis team will begin a three-match homestand Friday at 1:30 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs welcome the undefeated South Alabama Jaguars to the Samford Tennis Center for a key midseason South Region showdown.
 
Samford (7-1) heads into Friday's in-state battle boasting a five-match winning streak. Since losing at No. 21-ranked Auburn on Feb. 9, the Bulldogs have reeled off consecutive victories against UTSA, Jacksonville State, UAB, Appalachian State and Western Carolina.
 
In Sunday's dominant 6-1 triumph at Western Carolina, the Bulldogs breezed to an early 1-0 lead by sweeping all three of the doubles matches. The final scores were 8-2 on court No. 1, 8-0 on court No. 2 and then by default in the No. 3 singles contest.
 
Samford has dominated doubles play this season. Following Sunday's contest, the Bulldogs own a sterling 19-3 mark in the competition.
 
In singles play, Samford quickly received straight-set wins on courts No. 6, No. 5, No. 2, No. 4 and No. 3 to extend its overall advantage in the match to 6-0. Western Carolina's lone victory of the day occurred at court No. 1.
 
The Bulldogs' Yasmeen Ebada defeated Megan McLinden, 6-1, 6-4, in the No. 3 singles contest to improve her unblemished record on the season to 7-0. Sophomore Jessica Northcutt was also victorious Sunday as she moved to 6-2 in dual-match play with a 6-3, 6-0 victory on court No. 4.
 
Overall this season, Samford owns a lopsided 35-10 record in singles.
 
South Alabama (8-0) is off to its best start since 2008 and is coming off a 4-2 victory against St. John's on Wednesday at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.
 
Sophomore Michaela Meszarosova came back from a first-set loss to clinch the Jaguars' win over St. John's. Meszarosova, playing at No. 1, dropped the first set to Khrystyna Pavlyuk 6-4 and was down 3-0 in the second before winning in a tiebreaker 9-7. Meszarosova dropped just one game in the third to finish off the victory.

The teams started with singles play and none of the first five results went three sets. South Alabama grabbed a 3-1 lead after freshmen Laura Valkova and Monica Mitta, and sophomore Paula Sanchez claimed straight-sets wins.

Valkova struck first with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Nastya Polyakova at No. 2, and after a St. John's win at No. 5, Sanchez topped Stephanie Elgegren 6-4, 6-2 at No. 6, and Mitta dispatched Diamond Adams 6-1, 6-4 at No. 4.

St. John's pulled within 3-2 after Anna Morozova's 6-4, 7-5 victory over junior Emily Newton on the No. 3 court and looked to send the match to doubles before Meszarosova's comeback.
 
South Alabama's Valkova was named the Sun Belt Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week on Wednesday. The freshman from Piestany, Slovakia, posted a perfect mark in singles and doubles last week to help the Jaguars to an undefeated week. She won both singles matches in straight sets and dropped just five games in her two doubles victories.

Samford's Ebada was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week on Tuesday.
 
The Bulldogs' junior turned in an unblemished record in both singles and doubles play last week. The honor, which was awarded by the SoCon league office, was already Samford's second of the young 2014 dual-match season.
 
Ebada registered a 6-0 record last week as the Bulldogs earned wins over UAB (6-1), Appalachian State (4-3) and Western Carolina (6-1) to improve to 7-1 this season.
 
A native of Cairo, Egypt, Ebada earned three straight-sets victories at No. 3 singles for the Bulldogs and opened the week with a 6-3, 6-1 win over UAB's Pardis Kianoush.
 
Ebada then followed that performance with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Appalachian State's Gabrielle Wreder before picking up her third win of the week with a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Western Carolina's Megan McLinden.
 
In doubles play, Ebada teamed with three different playing partners last week and came away with a trio of wins.
 
Paired with Emily Mallory at No. 3 doubles, the Samford pair won 8-1 over UAB's Kianoush and Paula Castro. Ebada then moved to No. 2 doubles and joined Jessica Northcutt, where they won 8-3 over Appalachian State's Clare Cox and Megan Mullen. Ebada's final playing partner of the week was Stephanie N'tcha at No. 2 doubles as the tandem topped Shannon Bettiol and Sara Ruiz Pajares, 8-0.
 
Following Friday's huge nonconference showdown with South Alabama, the Samford University women's tennis team will next be in action Sunday at noon as the Bulldogs resume play in its SoCon schedule at home against the Georgia Southern Eagles. Sunday's contest will also be held at the Samford Tennis Center.