The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Southern Miss
UAB Women's Tennis Sneaks Past Southern Miss, 4-3
2/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Feb. 21, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB women's tennis team ran its winning streak to four straight matches Sunday with a 4-3 on-campus victory over Southern Miss, the Blazers' first Conference USA opponent of the season.
UAB found itself trailing 3-2 in the team match with just the last two singles contests on the court, but Jenny Cape and Brittany DeFelice finished off close wins within minutes of each other to put the Blazers over the top.
Cape took down Southern Miss No. 6 player Shannon Rogers, 6-4, 6-4, and DeFelice pulled out a 7-6 (4), 7-5 win at No. 5 over the Golden Eagles' Zoe Lee.
UAB's other wins came from Evelien Strijker at No. 1 singles and Giorgia Romeo at No. 3. Strijker fell behind 4-0 early in her match against Vroni van Berlo but then lost just five games the rest of the way as she rolled to a 7-6 (1), 6-3 win. Romeo was steady in a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Lauren Gutterman.
"I'm proud of the way we played in singles against a very good Southern Miss team," UAB head coach Krissy Hall said. "Evelien and Giorgia played really well for us, and we were able to sneak out just enough singles matches to get the win."
UAB (4-1) has now defeated Southern Miss (3-5) in each of the past five seasons.
Just like its previous two matches, the Blazers managed to win Sunday despite failing to secure the doubles point. UAB's lone doubles win came at the top spot from Strijker and Paula Alvarez.
Sunday's match was the first of four contests in eight days for UAB, which returns to action Wednesday at 2 p.m. CT at Samford. The Blazers then head to Atlanta, Ga., next weekend to face Georgia Southern on Saturday and Georgia State on Sunday.
