Samford 7, Western Carolina 0
CULLOWHEE, N.C. --- The Samford University women's tennis team picked up a 7-0 Southern Conference win on the road against the Western Carolina Catamounts on Thursday as the Bulldogs opened their arduous five-match road trip with a key league victory held at the Catamount Athletic Complex.
With the triumph, Samford (10-4, 2-3 SoCon) tallied its first road win of the 2012 campaign and improved to 1-1 when playing away from home this season. The Bulldogs also snapped a two-match SoCon losing streak which featured back-to-back defeats against UNCG and Elon last week.
Thursday's triumph marked Samford's sixth shutout victory of the dual-match season. Already this year, the Bulldogs have also tallied shutout wins against Jacksonville State, 7-0, South Alabama, 4-0, Southern Miss, 7-0, UAB, 7-0, and UTSA, 7-0.
Western Carolina (1-11, 0-4 SoCon) suffered its fifth-straight loss Thursday.
Against Western Carolina on Thursday, Samford swept all three doubles matches by identical scores of 8-1 to take an early 1-0 lead in the SoCon contest.
The Bulldogs then continued their dominance in singles play by earning straight-set victories on all six courts. In matches Nos. 4-6, respectively, Samford's Lindsey Mallory, Jessica Diamond and Emily Mallory all registered 6-0, 6-0 triumphs over their Western Carolina counterparts.
In the No. 1 singles contest, the Bulldogs' Madelie Janse Van Rensburg defeated the Catamounts' Ainhoa Iglesias Diaz, 6-1, 6-0, while Kristin Lewis defeated Megan McLinden on court No. 2, 6-1, 6-2, and Rebecca Kirven topped Karen Jimenez, 6-1, 6-3, in the No. 3 singles match.
Samford's Janse Van Rensburg picked up her fourth-straight singles victory and improved her team-leading record on the season to 12-2. Lindsey Mallory tallied her second-straight win and moved to 8-4 in singles play this year.
College of Charleston 5, UMass 2
College of Charleston 4, Cornell 1
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston women's tennis team ran its winning streak to 12 matches with victories over UMass (5-2) and Cornell (4-1) Thursday.
The Cougars swept the doubles against the Minutewomen (8-7) and won four of the six singles matches including the fourth deciding point by senior Caroline Newman with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over UMass' Julia Comas at the No. 3 line.
Her younger sister, Christin Newman as well as No. 113-ranked senior Katie Lee (Brisbane, Australia) and freshman Samantha Maddox also contributed in the singles lineup with straight-set victories as CofC protected its home court and are now 11-0.
"It was a nice win for us over one of the frontrunners in the A-10," Director of Tennis Angelo Anastopoulo said. "UMass is much-improved and they showed a lot of fight today. I'm sure they will do well in their conference championship."
Against Cornell, the Cougars (16-4) lost the doubles point, but rebounded 4-0 in singles before play was called at 10 p.m. (ET) with the match already decided. Caroline Newman played the role of clincher for the second time of the day as she secured the fourth point for the Cougars with a come from behind 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Cornell's Christine Ordway at the No. 2 spot.
Christin Newman, freshman Jenny Falcone and senior Katie Lee chipped in with straight-set singles victories to help the Cougars roll along on their season-best win streak. A rain delay halted match play at the start of the second set of singles.
"It was a very good comeback win for us," CofC Director of Tennis Angelo Anastopoulo said. "We benefited from the rain delay more than Cornell, because we were able to jump ahead of them after the break in play. We will enjoy the next three days off before getting back on the practice courts to prepare for conference play."
CofC, who played 10 matches in the course of 12 days, will now enjoy a bye week prior to a Southern Conference road trip to Davidson on Sunday, April 1 at 11 a.m. (ET) in Davidson, N.C.