March 24, 2009

BEAUMONT - After helping the Lamar University women's tennis team to a 3-1 week, senior Maria Gutierrez was named the Southland Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week.

Gutierrez, a San Antonio, Venezuela native, went 4-0 at No. 2 singles and 4-0 at No. 1 doubles for the Lady Cardinals last week, helping Lamar to a 3-1 week away from the Cardinal Courts.

She started the week with a 6-4, 6-4 conference win over Victoria Cruz of McNeese State on Tuesday afternoon. She followed her SLC victory with three wins at the Lady Eagle Classic hosted by Southern Miss in Hattiesburg Miss. In her first match of the tournament she came from behind to take out Alexandra Kaluza of Southern Miss 4-6, 6-4, 10-7. She then handed Mirte De Bakker of Troy a 6-4, 6-3 loss and finished her week with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Kathryn Haught of West Virginia.

With the four singles victories Gutierrez improved to 11-2 on the year and remained perfect at 5-0 in Southland Conference play. This is the first player of the week honor of her career, and the first of the season for the Lady Cardinals tennis team.

Gutierrez and the rest of the LU women will be back in action on Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. when they host the Lady Broncs of UT Pan American at the Cardinal Courts.