Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Lady Flames to Square Off with Colonials on Saturday

After playing seven of its last eight matches away from home, the Liberty women's tennis team will welcome George Washington to Lynchburg for a 1 p.m. match, Saturday.

Due to weather, the match will be contested at the Crosswhite Athletic Club (118 Davis Cup Rd., Lynchburg, VA) rather than the Cook Tennis Center.

The Lady Flames enter Saturday's match with a 5-5 mark, while the Colonials bring a 6-4 record to the Hill City.

Saturday's contest will mark the fourth-ever meeting between the two schools. Liberty owns a 3-0 advantage in the all-time series. The last match between the two programs came on March 14, 2014, in Washington, D.C. The Lady Flames won that match, 6-0.

How to Follow the Lady Flames
Live stats will be available for the match. Visit the women's tennis schedule & results panel on LibertyFlames.com for the link to live results.

For those unable to attend, be sure to follow @LUGameday on Twitter for live in-match updates.

Sunshine State Summary
Liberty faced Florida Atlantic and No. 46 UCF down at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., last weekend.

Last Friday against Florida Atlantic, the Lady Flames bounced back from losing the doubles point to win four singles matches and defeat the Owls, 4-2.

Last Saturday vs. No. 46 UCF, Liberty and UCF split six singles matches, but the Knights took the doubles point at the beginning of the match to help them to a 4-3 win.

Big South Update
After claiming a share of the Big South Conference regular season title in 2016, the Lady Flames are off to another strong start in 2017 with a 3-0 mark in Big South play. Liberty already has wins over Longwood, Radford and UNC Asheville in conference competition. The Lady Flames have yielded just two points to their opposition in three league matches.

Currently, Winthrop is atop the conference standings at 4-0, while Liberty is only a half-game behind at 3-0. Charleston Southern (1-0), Gardner-Webb (1-1) and UNC Asheville (1-1) follow, while Presbyterian (0-1), Campbell (0-1), Longwood (0-3) and Radford (0-3) have yet to record a league win.

Liberty senior Mariely Hassey was named the Big South Women's Tennis Player of the Week by the league office, Wednesday, for the second straight week. Hassey collected a pair of singles wins and two doubles wins, last week.

The Lady Flames will play their next Big South match against Charleston Southern in Lynchburg on March 11.

Inside the Numbers
Hassey leads the Lady Flames with 12 singles victories in the 2016-17 season. She has 61 career singles wins in a Liberty uniform, fifth-most in program history. The Arizona native has the third-best singles winning percentage (.875, 7-1 record) among Big South players, this spring.

Evangeline Crist is right behind her with 60 career singles victories, including a 10-6 mark during her junior season. Crist is 6-2 is dual matches this spring, while senior Emily Groeneveld (5-2) and sophomore Anna Dollar (5-3) hold strong singles marks in spring competition.

Liberty's top two doubles units this year have been Crist and Dollar (12-8 record) and sophomores Rebekah Anderson and Aleksandra Panchenko (10-10 record). Crist is No. 4 in program history in doubles victories (67).

Liberty (5-5) will take on George Washington (6-4) on Saturday in Lynchburg.
Scouting George Washington
The Colonials' (6-4, 1-2 A10) six wins this spring have come over Charlotte, Navy, Towson, Morgan State, Delaware and Saint Louis.

Their roster is composed of one freshman, three sophomores, two juniors and two seniors.

Sophomore Maria Siopacha boasts the most singles wins (17) and best singles winning percentage (.708) on the team. Siopacha is 7-3 in the No. 1 singles position, this spring. Freshman Melis Bayraktaroglu (14-8), sophomore Sara Grubac (7-4) and juniors Kamilla Beisenova (12-10) and Marie-Louise Decamps (12-10) all boast above .500 singles marks on the year.

In doubles play, Louise-Decamps and Taylor Nederlander have the best record (5-2) on the squad, this spring.

George Washington is coached by first-year head coach Torrie Browning. Browning was named the head coach of the women's program in July 2016. She served as the interim head coach of both the men's and women's programs at the school, beginning in February 2016.

No comments:

Post a Comment