No. 33 SMU Women’s Tennis Takes Second Place At C-USA Championship

ORLANDO, Fla (SMU) – With the match tied at three points apiece, SMU’s Ashley Turpin ultimately dropped a grueling three-set match at No. 6 singles to Jo-Anne Karaitiana and 22nd-ranked Tulsa rallied to a 4-3 win over the No. 33 SMU Women’s Tennis Team in the 2011 Conference USA Women’s Tennis Tournament Championship match.

The thrilling match marked the first time in league history that the Championship finale was decided by a 4-3 tally.

The loss snapped the SMU’s nine-match winning streak and the team is now 21-5 on the season.

The Mustangs were making their third appearance in the C-USA Women’s Tennis Championship match. SMU claimed the league title in 2009 and also finished second in 2006.

“The team battled so hard today and while I am disappointed in the final score, I am really proud of my team,” said head coach Lauren Longbotham Meisner. “This match came down to the very end like I knew it would and we just didn’t come out on the right end of the decision. Congratulations to Tulsa, they are a tough team and this championship is well deserved. I still think we are playing some great tennis right now and we will regroup from this and get focused on the NCAAs.”

The match was filled with close competition at all positions, beginning with the doubles play. Tulsa landed the first win of the opening competition when Ewa Szatkowska and Anastasia Erofeeva downed SMU’s Heather Steinbauer and Edyta Cieplucha, 8-4, at No. 2.

The Mustangs answered, however, when juniors Marta Lesniak and 

Aleksandra Malyarchikova took an 8-3 win over Alexandra Kichoutkin and Karaitiana at the top spot. On the season, Lesniak and Malyarchikova have tallied a 20-4 mark when playing together as SMU’s top pair.

With the early lead on the line, Tulsa’s Bonny Davidson and Sam Vickers put their team on top early when they earned an 8-4 win over Shahzoda Hatamova and Ashley Turpin at No. 3.

As play shifted to singles, Lesniak quickly evened the score as she breezed to a 6-3, 6-2 over Kichoutkin at the top singles line. Lesniak posted her 19th-straight singles victory and eighth win over a ranked opponent.

Lesniak, the nation’s ninth-ranked singles player, earned her 23rd victory overall this spring. Her 41 total wins on the season, against just five losses, place her alone in second place on the program’s all-time single season wins list. She trails Stephanie Fess who won 45 matches during the 1981-82 season.

Lesniak is alone in fifth place on the all-time career wins list. She currently has 84 career victories in her three-year stint on the Hilltop.

Minutes later, the lead was back with the Golden Hurricane as Michelle Farley downed Steinbauer by a 6-2, 6-1 count at No. 4.

Tulsa would hold the lead for only a short while, however, as the Mustangs earned a pair of wins at Nos. 2 and 3 singles.

Cieplucha tied the match with her 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Erofeeva at the No. 2 line and was followed by No. 125 Malyarchikova’s come-from-behind downing of Szatkowska, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3.

With SMU on the brink of victory, Tulsa’s Vickers stepped up to even the match once again, when she took her 6-4, 6-1 win at the No. 5 position over Hatamova.

All eyes then focused on the final match – No. 6 singles – where Karaitiana and Turpin met in a three-set battle for league dominance.

After claiming the first set 7-5, Turpin began to tire on the hot and humid Florida afternoon, and surrendered the second set 6-2 to Karaitiana. With the championship on the line, the Tulsa senior was still too much and took the final set 6-1 to secure the C-USA title for TU.

The Mustangs will now await the announcement of the 2011 NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament draws to see where they will head for NCAA action. Complete pairings, match dates and times will be released on Tuesday, May 3 at 4 p.m. CT.

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