March 5, 2005
Results
LAKE CHARLES, La. - The Lamar women's tennis team saw its four-match winning streak come to an end on Saturday afternoon, as the Lady Cardinals lost their Southland Conference opener, 5-2, to McNeese State at the Cowgirl Tennis Courts.
The loss dropped Lamar to 4-5 overall and 0-1 in SLC play, while MSU improved to 7-2 overall and 1-0 in league action. The victory was also the seventh-straight for the Cowgirls.
The matched opened with doubles play where Lamar's No. 1 tandem of Andrea Martinez and Tara Shelander won their eighth consecutive match, 8-4, over Noelia Furno and Marina Gando. Martinez and Shelander are now 8-1 on the year with all nine matches played at the top doubles position.
LU's No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams both had three-match winning streaks come to an end against the Cowgirls. The Lady Cardinal duo of Kendall Gibbs and Marine LeRoy fell at the No. 2, 8-1, while LU's No. 3 squad of Hayley Bakker and Marion Brument lost 8-4 at the No. 3.
In singles action, only Martinez and Bakker were able to muster victories for Lamar. Martinez, a sophomore from Durango, Mexico, won at the No. 1 singles position after MSU's Furno retired in the second set. Martinez won the first set, 7-6, and was up 4-1 in the second before earning the win. Bakker, a senior from Melbourne, Australia, used a strong second-set tiebreaker performance to top MSU's Urska Dobersek. Bakker won the first set 6-4 and then notched her fifth-straight singles win with a 10-5 victory in the second-set tiebreak.
A sophomore from Beaumont, Shelander saw her four-match singles streak end in heart-breaking fashion at the No. 2. Shelander won the first set, 6-3, but then lost the second set 7-5 to McNeese's Magali Risoleo. In the third and decisive set the pair battled to a 6-6 tie, forcing a tiebreaker. Unfortunately, Shelander came up just short, losing the tiebreak 10-7.
Gibbs, a junior from Mansfield, fell in straight sets at the No. 4, as did Brument at the No. 5 position, and LeRoy at the No. 6.
The Lady Cardinals continue their SLC schedule on Sunday, Mar. 6 with a 2 p.m. league match at Stephen F. Austin State in Nacogdoches, Texas.
