BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Samford University women's tennis team's home winning streak came to an end at 13-straight matches Thursday as the Bulldogs were defeated by the College of Charleston Cougars, 6-1, in a Southern Conference-opening contest held at the Samford Tennis Center.

With the loss, Samford (8-2, 0-1 SoCon) dropped its first home match in nearly a year. The Bulldogs' previous setback at the Samford Tennis Center occurred March 27, 2011, in a hard-fought 4-3 defeat against Furman. Since then, Samford tallied 13-consecutive home victories, including eight-straight wins to open the 2012 dual-match season.

College of Charleston (5-4, 1-0 SoCon) bounced back from a 5-2 loss at No. 57-ranked Tulane on Tuesday. The Cougars have completed each of their last two SoCon schedules with unblemished 10-0 records and picked up their first win of the 2012 conference season Thursday.

Samford battled back to clinch the doubles point and took an early 1-0 lead against College of Charleston.

In the No. 1 doubles contest, the Bulldogs' tandem comprised of Kristin Lewis and Lindsey Mallory improved to 9-1 this season as they rallied for an 8-6 triumph against the Cougars' pairing of Jamie Harrell and Irene Viana. Samford's true freshman duo of Stephanie N'tcha and Adri Lochner then clinched the all-important doubles point by tallying a thrilling 9-7 win on court No. 3.

With their decisive victory, the Bulldogs' combination of N'tcha and Lochner improved to 5-2 in doubles play this season.

The Bulldogs led the SoCon-opening match by a score of 1-0 after doubles play, but fell short in all six singles contests as College of Charleston posted its final 6-1 victory.