 Richmond Downs SLU at A-10 Championship
April 20, 2007
MONROEVILLE, Pa. - Well rested after an opening-round bye, second-seeded Richmond used two straight doubles wins and a trio of singles victories to blank Saint Louis 4-0 at the Atlantic 10 Championship on Friday afternoon at Club 4 Life in Monroeville, Pa. The Bills dropped to 13-14 with the loss while the Spiders improved to 7-7. Richmond jumped out to an early lead by taking the doubles point from the Billikens in just two matches. Jessica Hubbard and Xenia Schneider teamed at the No. 3 position to defeat Allison Dobbins and Rachel McCullagh 8-4. Saint Louis' Tara Grant and Katerina Lozanova battled at the No. 1 spot but the Spider tandem of Robin Carter and Beatrice Grasu proved to be a bit too much as they won 9-7 for the team point. Ashlee Vosters shut out McCullagh in No. 4 singles action to put her team up by two. Then Richmond's Grasu downed Grant 6-0, 6-4 at the No. 3 spot and Carter beat Ana Renda 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 for the team victory. Nationally-ranked Pamela Duran, also the reigning A-10 Most Outstanding Rookie, was unable to put away the Billikens' Lozanova at No. 1 singles as their match was unfinished. Duran is the third ranked player Lozanova has faced this season. Meanwhile, Jo Becker and Caitlin Bokulic were winning against their No. 5 and No. 6 foes, respectively, but their matches also were not played to a final decision. "It's difficult to play two matches in one day but I thought we played well against the second-seeded team," head coach Jonathan Zych said. "I'm really proud of our effort and how we battled. Now it's almost like we're in a brand new tournament. We've got to bring it tomorrow."
Tomorrow the Billikens will play at 9:30 a.m. (CT) against the loser of the Charlotte/Duquesne match taking place on Friday evening. Friday's loss knocked SLU into the fifth-place bracket, which is the highest the Bills can finish. Doubles Singles |
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