Buc Men Earn #3 Seed, Women #4 Seed at Big South Championships
4/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
CSU men's and women's teams have been rewarded with the #3 and #4 seeds to their respective Big South Conference Championship tournaments, which will take place simultaneously this Thursday through Saturday on the campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.
On the women's side, #4 seed CSU (4-2 Big South, 9-8 overall) will open the Championship with a matchup at 9:30 A.M. Thursday against #5 seed High Point (2-4 Big South, 6-11 overall) in the first match of the tournament. The Lady Bucs defeated the Lady Panthers 6-1 earlier this year at High Point in a contest that saw CSU capture all three doubles matches and five of the six singles matches contested on the day.
In singles play, CSU's number one singles player Zineb Hilali will look to build on a strong finish to the season that saw the sophomore win eight of her last nine matches. Also, number three singles player Andrea Schutte will seek to continue her excellence against conference competition, as the sophomore won five of her six matches in Big South play in the regular season. In doubles, Patricia Jaeger and Aodhnait Lombard have an unblemished Big South mark to defend after the duo posted a perfect 6-0 record in Big South doubles play in 2008.
Meanwhile, the men will get action underway at 2:30 P.M. on Thursday when #3 seed CSU (4-2 Big South, 12-8 overall) faces the host #6 seed Winthrop Eagles (2-4 Big South, 10-11 overall). The men are playing their best at this most important stage of the season, as CSU has been victorious in five of its last six matches. Like the women, the men posted a road victory over their first round conference foe earlier this season, as the Bucs were victorious 4-3 over the Eagles in the teams' previous encounter in Rock Hill on March 24.
One of the singles winners on that day was number three singles player Grega Teraz, who capped his first regular season in blue and gold by winning 15 of his last 17 singles matches, including five of his six Big South matches. Also winning were number five player Murat Atilla and number six player Luis Maselli. Both these players posted strong finishes to the year in providing CSU with quality depth, as Atilla won five of his last six singles matches and Maselli his last five matches consecutively. In doubles play, Teraz and partner Steven Dean will look to continue their recent excellence, as CSU's number one doubles tandem has won their last 12 matches consecutively and owns a 5-1 mark in Big South play.
Both the women and men narrowly missed out on parlaying their 4-2 Big South records into improved seeds in the Championship. On the women's side, CSU was nipped by a Liberty Lady Flame squad that finished 4-1 in the Big South (with their lone loss coming to CSU) and that did not play #1 seed Winthrop in the regular season as well as Coastal Carolina (who defeated CSU 4-3 last week) for the #2 and #3 seeds in the tournament. The men, meanwhile, finished in a tie with High Point for the number two overall seed, with the Panthers winning the tiebreaker by virtue of a 4-3 victory over CSU at High Point earlier this season.
The full men's and women's schedules are listed below. Before the action starts on Thursday, however, stay tuned to csusports.com for more information on how to follow the tournament online.
Women's Schedule
Thursday, April 17
Match 1: No. 4 Charleston Southern vs. No. 5 High Point, 9:30am ET
Match 2: No. 2 Liberty vs. No. 7 UNC Asheville, 12:00am ET
Match 3: No. 3 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 6 Radford, 3:00pm ET
Friday, April 18
Match 4: No. 1 Winthrop vs. Match 1 Winner, 10:30am
Match 5: Match 2 Winner vs. Match 3 Winner, 1:30pm
Saturday, April 19
Match 6: Match 4 Winner vs. Match 5 Winner, 1:00pm
Men's Schedule
Thursday, April 17
Match 1: No. 4 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 5 Liberty, 9:00am ET
Match 2: No. 2 High Point vs. No. 7 UNC Asheville, 11:30am ET
Match 3: No. 3 Charleston Southern vs. No. 6 Winthrop, 2:30pm ET
Friday, April 18
Match 4: No. 1 Radford vs. Match 1 Winner, 10:00am
Match 5: Match 2 Winner vs. Match 3 Winner, 1:00pm
Saturday, April 19
Match 6: Match 4 Winner vs. Match 5 Winner, 9:00am
