Women's Tennis Southern Conference

Samford Falls to Alabama at NCAA Tourney

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Samford University women’s tennis team’s historic 2015 season came to an end Friday as the Bulldogs were defeated in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, 4-0, on the road against the No. 13-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in front of a raucous crimson-clad crowd at the University of Alabama Tennis Stadium.
 
“I thought we gave it a really good effort there in the doubles play,” said Samford head coach David Vest. “We were a couple of points shy of getting back on serve on court No. 1 at 6-5. We played great on court No. 2, but then in singles we ran into a really good team playing at home. There is a reason why Alabama is the No. 13-ranked team in the nation.”
 
Samford (16-9), the Southern Conference champion which rolled through its league competition with an undefeated 7-0 record, battled the regional’s top-seeded team in doubles play and nearly earned the early 1-0 advantage.
 
On court No. 2, the Bulldogs’ doubles tandem comprised of Yasmeen Ebada and Jessica Northcutt rattled off its 13th-consecutive victory by topping Alabama’s pairing of Natalia Maynetto and Emily Zabor, 8-3. Samford’s Ebada and Northcutt concluded their stellar 2015 campaign with a brilliant 18-3 doubles record.
 
Following the Bulldogs’ victory on court No. 2, all eyes shifted to the No. 1 doubles competition where Alabama’s No. 1-ranked team in the nation was squaring off against Samford’s combination of Stephanie N’tcha and Carita Moolman.
 
The Bulldogs trailed the Tide’s defending NCAA doubles champions, Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen, 6-4, in the match, but nearly broke the pair to jump right back into contention. Samford took a 40-love lead in the set, but Alabama’s duo was able to battle back and eventually earn the point after several advantage opportunities for both squads.
 
Alabama (18-7) then broke Samford for the final point of the match to win the contest, 8-4.
 
After earning the all-important doubles point, the Crimson Tide continued its momentum in singles play and notched straight-set victories on courts No. 3, No. 5 and No. 4 to register the final 4-0 win.
 
“We had an outstanding season, but it’s always hard for it to end this way, especially for the seniors,” Vest said. “They won’t have a chance to do this again, but this was all their first time in the NCAA Tournament, so it was new for them. This team went undefeated in the SoCon and won the SoCon Tournament, so they still had a great season.”
 
With its win, Alabama advances to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament and will square off against second-seed Clemson on Saturday at 1 p.m. (CDT). Earlier on Friday, Clemson knocked off South Alabama, 4-0.
 
Samford faced Alabama in dual-match play for the first time since Feb. 22, 2009.
 
Even with Friday’s loss, the Bulldogs have nothing to hang their heads about this season. Samford earned its first SoCon Tournament championship on April 26 by defeating ETSU, 4-1. The victory marked the Bulldogs’ first women’s tennis title since joining the league in 2009.
 
Samford proved to be victorious in 11 of its last 13 matches of the season and cruised to a 10-0 record against league opponents in 2015.
 
The Bulldogs’ loss Friday snapped their six-match winning streak with five of their nine setbacks in 2015 coming against nationally-ranked opponents.
 
Next season, the future looks extremely bright for the Samford women’s tennis team. The Bulldogs will obviously miss the exploits of seniors N’tcha, Yasmeen Ebada and AnnMarie Lyon, but return four members of its SoCon championship lineup in Carita Moolman, Northcutt, Iva Parapunova and Savannah Wood.
 
“The future looks really bright for us,” said Vest. “We have a great group of players coming in. We’ll start all over again next year, but the core of our team will be returning and that’s going to be huge for us, because they’ve won a lot of singles and doubles matches for this team. The future still looks very bright for us.”