The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Opens Tournament Play Thursday Versus ECU
4/18/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 18, 2012
C-USA Women's Tennis Championship Central
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB women's tennis team begins play in the Conference USA Championship with a first-round match Thursday at 10 a.m. CT against East Carolina.
The ninth-seeded Blazers (6-11) and eighth-seeded Lady Pirates (9-15) will square off at the Dunavant-Wellford Tennis Center in Memphis, Tenn. Live scoring is available at C-USA Women's Tennis Championship Central.
UAB dropped a pair of matches last weekend in its final action before the tournament. The Blazers dropped a 5-2 decision to ULM and then suffered a 4-0 loss to No. 58 Tulane to close out the regular season.
Freshman Rachel Daniell and sophomore Caroline Faught have posted the best individual records for UAB this spring, going 9-7 and 8-6, respectively, in singles play. Daniell has played every match at the No. 3 position, while Faught has split time between the No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the lineup.
East Carolina split two matches in the final weekend of its regular season, blanking College of Charleston, 7-0, and being swept by Coastal Carolina, 7-0. Natalie Collins leads the Lady Pirates with 11 singles wins this spring, while Renata Bakieva, Danielle Terpko and Yilian Zhang have nine each.
The winner of Thursday's match will move on to meet top-seeded Tulsa in the quarterfinals on Friday at 10 a.m. The tournament semifinals are slated for Saturday at 12 p.m. with the championship match to be played Sunday at 10 a.m.
Thursday's opener for UAB will mark its third tournament meeting with East Carolina in the past five years. The Pirates defeated the Blazers, 4-2, in the 2008 event and snuck past UAB, 4-3, in 2009. Both of those were first-round contests, as well.
