Southern Miss
Loyola Marymount University
Southern Miss Outlasts Loyola Marymount, 4-3
3/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 16, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- - The women's tennis team won four of the six singles against Loyola Marymount, taking a 4-3 win Friday afternoon. Southern Miss improves to 10-2, while LMU dropped to 6-6.
LMU started the match winning the doubles' point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. Pavla Mestrova and Robyn Baker (LMU) downed Sherry Price and Brittany Serret, 8-3. The freshmen duo of Stephanie Dellocono and Lauren Gutterman took the No. 2 doubles with an 8-5 win over Serena Fermin/Tamara Tanner (LMU). The doubles' point came down the No. 3 doubles, when Ali Blackett and Grace could not close out the match, lost 9-7 to Erin Ivey and Bliss Nixon (LMU).
"Losing the doubles' point was a huge disappointment for us," Head Coach Randy Rowley said. "We didn't play very brave at No. 3 and sort of handed LMU the doubles' point."
LMU built its lead to 2-0 with No. 56-ranked Mestrova dominating at No. 1 singles, defeating Price, 6-0, 6-0.
Southern Miss earned its first point of the match, when Dellocono knocked off Serena Fermin (LMU) 6-2, 6-3, at No. 4 singles. The Lady Eagles knotted the match at 2-2, winning at No. 6 singles with Gutterman defeating Audrey Bulkley (LMU) 6-0, 6-4, in straight sets.
LMU regained the lead with a win at No. 2 singles behind Baker's (LMU), 6-0, 6-2, win over Serret. Kammerer battling Elrien de Villiers at No. 5 singles, dropped the first set before bouncing back to take the win with a 0-6, 6-3, 6-4, tying the match at 3-3.
The match came down to the No. 3 singles. Blackett, overcoming an injury early in the first set, took the first set in a tie-break 7-6 (4) and then outlasted Tanner, 6-4, for the win to clinch the match.
"This was a team that was ranked No. 69 at the beginning of the week," Rowley said. "We had to make a gut-check between the doubles and singles and find a way to come up with four points in the singles. This was a big win for us, getting a win over a nationally ranked team. It's what we've been striving for for the last four years."
"I was pleased with the way Ali stepped up her game, working through her injury early in her match," Rowley said. "She was the one that clinched the match for us."
