Bills Give Top Seed a Scare
April 18, 2008 MONROEVILLE, Pa. - No. 8 seed Saint Louis pushed No. 1 seed Massachusetts to the brink, but the Minutewomen managed a 4-3 victory over the Billikens in an Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Championship quarterfinals match Friday afternoon at Club 4 Life. Saint Louis (12-11), which defeated Fordham 4-0 in the first round Friday morning, drops to the consolation bracket. The Billikens will play Saturday at 9:30 a.m. (CT) against the loser of the championship quarterfinals match between No. 4 Duquesne and No. 5 Xavier. A victory would allow SLU to play for fifth place on Sunday, while a loss would give the Bills a tie for seventh place. Freshman Hailee Elmore (Springfield, Ill./Springfield) and junior Joe Becker (Frankfurt, Germany/Ziehen School) defeated Kristen DiPiero and Tanisha Hodgson 8-4 at No. 2 doubles, but UMass won the doubles point with victories at No. 1 and No. 3. Masha Pozer and Candynce Boney were 8-3 winners over senior Amanda Hellberg (Grand Haven, Mich./Grand Haven) and freshman Casey Miller (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's) at No. 1, while Maude Lecluyse and Laura Danai edged seniors Tara Grant (Austin, Texas/St. Stephen's) and Rachel McCullagh (Sugar Land, Texas/John Newcombe) 8-6 at No. 3. Elmore, Miller and Becker claimed singles wins for Saint Louis. Elmore easily disposed of Boney 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2, Miller was a 6-4, 6-2 victor over Kaitlyn Carpenter at No. 3 and Becker downed Hodgson 6-4, 6-1 at No. 4. After Pozar defeated Hellberg 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 and Lecluyse slipped past Grant 6-4, 6-4 at No. 5, the match came down to the outcome at No. 6. Danai captured the first set with a 7-4 tiebreaker decision and went on to post a 7-6, 7-5 victory over McCullagh.
"It was a heck of a battle at No. 6," head coach Jonathan Zych said. "Rachel played hard, but it just didn't go her way. "Overall it was a great effort by our team, especially when you consider we were playing a very good team in our second match of the day," Zych added. "I'm proud of our performance." |
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