Southern Miss
Jackson State
Southern Miss Tops In-State Foe Jackson State, 6-1
3/31/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 31, 2010
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss Women's Tennis team, playing on their homecourts for the first time in two weeks, used quick court movement and strong serves throughout the day to take home a victory over in-state foe Jackson State 6-1 on Wednesday.
After a one-hour delay, the matches got underway and the Lady Eagles (10-8, 1-2) quickly put a point on the board by securing doubles behind the play of sisters Elja and Vroni van Berlo and the longtime duo of Shannon Rogers and Zoe Lee.
Rogers and Lee defeated Angela Rosa and Britney Shy by a score of 8-2 and improve to 10-4 on the season as a team. The victory also snapped a three-game skid the pair found themselves in late in the season after an impressive nine game winning streak.
The van Berlo sisters, playing at the No. 1 spot as they have much of this season, defeated Victoria Guedez and Paulina Vargas 8-3 to improve to 9-8 on the year.
At the No. 3 spot, Head Coach Raynie Theis gave two largely untested players the opportunity to gain game experience. Senior transfer Lauren Sanford and freshman Fracis Askew, playing together as a doubles tandem for the first time this season, fell 8-6 to Asha Saravanamohan and Geneva Warren but not before showing excellent promise in all areas on the court. The experience gained will be valuable to the Lady Eagles later on in the season.
With the doubles point secure and Southern Miss up 1-0, singles play began and the story was much of the same.
At No. 1 singles, the young van Berlo's serve sliced the edge of the service line for most of the match and her overpowering returns proved to be too much to handle as she easily won 6-0, 6-0 over Guedez.
At No. 2 singles, redshirt junior Stephanie Dellocono brought home a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Saravanamohan while her longtime doubles partner senior Lauren Gutterman won 6-1, 6-3 over Vargas at No. 4.
The elder van Berlo, Elja, faced off at No. 3 singles against Rosa. Van Berlo, much like her younger sister, worked her opponent across the court before repeatedly using a soft touch or a slice to finish off points.
In a late switch due to injury, Sanford was pushed up to No. 5 singles while Lee was brought in at No. 6 singles to replace Askew. In her first match at No. 5, Sanford fell 6-1, 6-0 to Shy but was in the match and showed her determination and will to win throughout.
Lee took down Valentina Prado 6-0, 6-0 to close out singles play for the day.
Southern Miss will host two Conference USA foes in Memphis (April 9) and Tulane (April 11) in two weeks and will also welcome back former Lady Eagle Tennis players in conjunction with the university's centennial celebrations.
-SouthernMiss.com-
