April 23, 2010

Box Score

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Lamar University women's tennis team advanced to the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament with a 4-1 victory over Sam Houston State on Friday.

Lamar (14-8) will face No. 1 seed Northwestern State in the semifinals at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

The Cardinals dominated singles play to win Friday's contest. Lamar's Mariaryeni Gutierrez, the conference Player of the Year, remained unbeaten in singles play with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Giorgia Pozzan. Kaltrina Harbuzi improved to 19-1 in singles play with a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Tatyana Postnikova at No. 2 singles.

Manami Kuroda won at No. 5 singles and Diana Mendez won by default at No. 6 singles for the Cardinals, who bounced back after dropping the doubles point.

"I was very, very proud of my girls today, the last three weeks we have been really working hard for this tournament and have shown that the desire to win is there," Lamar coach David Wong said. "The girls fought really hard and Sam Houston really played very hard against us and made us earn it. We are ready to compete (Saturday) against Northwestern State.

Sam Houston ended its season at 8-12.