Women's Tennis Hosts C-USA Rival Rice Saturday

[PonyPride]

Women's Tennis Hosts C-USA Rival Rice Saturday
Mustangs Boast Ranked Singles and Doubles Players


April 3, 2008

DALLAS (SMU)--The SMU women's tennis team hosts Conference USA rival No. 56 Rice this Saturday, April 5 at 1pm in the first women's tennis match to be held at the Turpin Tennis Stadium. The Mustangs are 8-8 this season, but will look to rebound against the Owls.

Scouting the Mustangs: The Mustangs enter the weekend with a ranked singles player and a ranked doubles pair. Natalia Bubien achieved an ITA ranking of No. 88 in the country, according to the latest poll. Bubien spent four weeks ranked No. 73, but had dropped off the poll in recent weeks. Thanks in part to beating then-No. 38 Kelcy Tefft of Notre Dame on March 24, Bubien now finds herself back in the national rankings. In addition, Bubien and her doubles partner Pavi Francis are ranked 41st in the country. Bubien had garnered a fall preseason ranking in doubles, but this is the first time in Francis' career that she has been ranked. Bubien and Francis knocked off the No. 1 doubles pair in the country, downing Buck/Tefft of Notre Dame by a count of 8-7 (1-0). The duo is riding a four-match winning streak entering the weekend.

Last Time Out: SMU played Notre Dame in a hard-fought match on March 24. The Mustangs defeated the No. 1 doubles pair in the country, but lost the doubles point when Nicole Briceno and Kristen Reid fell to Krisik/Rielly at No. 2. In singles, the highlight was Bubien defeating then-No. 38 Tefft in straight sets. Francis was ahead of Buck at No. 2, but the match was unfinished.

Scouting the Owls: As a team, the Owls are 74-34 (.685) in singles and 36-19 (.655) in doubles. Three Owls have 13 singles wins each, with Julie Chao (13-6), Dominique Karas (13-4) and Rebecca Lin (13-5). Chao plays at No. 1 singles, where three of her six losses have come to ranked teams. Chao is riding a three-match winning streak coming into the weekend's match. Karas has flipped between the second and third positions in the lineup. She has been in the second slot for her last seven matches, where she has won six of the seven (the seventh was unfinished). Two of Karas' losses have been to ranked teams. Lin has played all but one match this season at No. 4, where only two of her losses have come to unranked teams. In doubles, the Owls are led by Chao and Karas in the first spot, where they've notched a 13-5 record. Emily Braid and Varsha Shiva-Shankar have the next best record, posting a 12-4 record at No. 3. Tiffany Lee and Lin have struggled at the second spot, putting up a record of just one match over .500. Last time out, Rice took wins over Texas State and Texas-Arlington. UTA forfeited two singles matches and defaulted on one doubles, match, giving the Owls the doubles point and putting them ahead 3-0 before singles even started. Against Texas State, Rice dominated in doubles, winning at Nos. 1 and 2. The Owls then won three singles matches before the match was stopped at four points.


On the Horizon: The Mustangs will next host Arkansas State on Thursday, April 10 at 2:00 p.m. at the Turpin Tennis Stadium. SMU wraps up its regular season play against Louisiana-Lafayette next Sunday, April 13 at noon, also at home.

For the complete schedule and results, log on to SMUMustangs.com.

[SMUFan]

Why would they schedule a tennis match opposite the Red/Blue game?

[centexstang]

which would you guess was probably scheduled over a year ago?

[mrydel]

and the red and blue game date was changed after JJ became coach.