Southern Utah University's women's tennis takes on Cal State Bakersfield Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. at Bally's Resort in Las Vegas in a rematch of a match played March 15. The Thunderbirds will be looking to avenge a 4-3 to the Roadrunners in March. Following Tuesday's match with CSUB the T-Birds will host a five-team Summit League cluster at Bally's as well.
The Thunderbirds enter the CSUB match with a 7-8 overall mark and a 2-2 record in the Summit League. SUU won its last match against Dixie State College last Thursday, 6-3. The win was the Thunderbirds' second against the Red Storm this season. SUU also prevailed against DSC, 5-4, on February 24.
The Roadrunners enter Tuesday's match with a 1-14 record after losing their last match to Point Loma Nazarene University, 7-0, on Friday.
Last time against CS Bakersfield: Julian Mannix took a 7-5 third set win over Carmen Blanco at fourth singles on March 15 in at Bally's Resort in Las Vegas to lift Cal State Bakersfield to a 4-3 win over Southern Utah.
CSUB won two matches by the narrowest of margins to take the doubles point, then earned a split of the singles matches to pick up its first win of the 2010 season. SUU was dominant at the top of the ladder, with No. 1 Ksusha Nazarova besting Nefeli Diamanti 6-2, 6-2, and Olia TatarchenkoKristi Latteier was the only other Thunderbird to taste victory Monday, as she came back to edge Gabriela Horton at fifth singles, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6.
In addition to Mannix's match-winner, the Roadrunners got points at third and sixth singles and won the doubles point by getting victories in the second and third positions. CSUB's Veronica Dimas defeated Kirrily Burden, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, at third singles, while Julie Hutton got past Mandie Divino claiming a 7-5, 6-0 win over Ashlee Thorneycroft at No. 2. Nazarova and Tatarchenko also won at first doubles, taking an 8-4 win over Diamanti and Thorneycroft, but 6-2, 6-0, at No. 6. Dimas and Mannis slipped past Blanco and Burden 9-7 at No. 2 doubles, while Horton and Hutton claimed a win over Latteier and Divino by the same count at No. 3.
Up Next: The Thunderbirds will enter a four match conference streak in Las Vegas against Oakland, IPFW, IUPUI and South Dakota State, starting on Thursday. These will be SUU's last four matches before the Summit League Championship, which starts on April 23 in Tulsa, Okla
Head Coach Lenny Lee (Temple, 1977) is in his 17th season as head coach of the T-Bird women's tennis program. Coach Lee has led the program since its inception in 1994. Last season, Lee guided SUU to a 10-10 record and a third-place finish in The Summit League championships. Lee, who has earned Summit League Coach of the Year honors the last two seasons, has compiled a career dual match record of 210-202 through 27 years of coaching, including a 53-36 Summit League mark. His teams have claimed six conference or district championships and over the past 11 years his program has been one of the most successful at Southern Utah University.
T-Bird Notes: For the season, the Thunderbirds holds a 41-45 record in singles matches and 19-25 in doubles matches. In the Summit league, SUU's record in singles is 13-7 and 5-6 in doubles. The Thunderbirds are currently in fifth place in the league with two wins and two loses. No. 1 Ksusha Nazarova and No. 2 Olia Tatarchenko share the best record for the Thunderbirds with ten wins and five losses in the singles as well as in the doubles with nine wins and six losses.
T-Birds Picked Third In Summit: Southern Utah was picked to finish third in the Summit League this season, by a vote of the conference's coaches. The Thunderbirds received 45 points with one first-place vote to finish behind top pick and defending champion IPFW (61 points, five first-place votes) and Oral Roberts (57 points with three first-place votes). Western Illinois was tabbed to finish fourth with 43 points, followed by UMKC (42), IUPUI (26), Oakland (23), South Dakota State (18) and Centenary (9).
Last Time Out: ST. GEORGE, Utah, April 9 - Southern Utah University's women's tennis team improved to 7-8 on the season after picking up its second win of the season over Dixie State College on Thursday afternoon, 6-3.
The Thunderbirds won the first two doubles matches when the SUU's Russian duo of Ksusha Nazarova and Olia Tatarchenko defeated Alicia Holm and Courtney Kezerian, 8-4, while Kirrily Burden with Carmen Blanco topped Lydia Hays and Ashley Lafeen, 8-2. The Red Storm's Andrienne Davis along with Lauren Tarver downed Kristi Latteier and Mandie Divino in the last doubles, winning 8-4.
In singles, SUU's No.1 Nazorava took a first point for the Thunderbirds, when she did not give up even one game, winning over the Red Storm's No.1 Hays, 6-0, 6-0. Tatarchenko followed her teammate with a 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (4) win over Holm, securing another point for the Thunderbirds. After the first two points for the Thunderbirds, Burden had to retire her match due to an injury, while she was trailing Lafeen, 4-1. The Thunderbirds finished the match with two more wins, when Blanco defeated Kezerian and Latteier downed Davis, 6-1, 6-4 and 6-2, 6-2, respectively, while Tarver added one more point for the Red Storm with a 6-1,6-1 win over Divino.
