No. 1 SMU Downs UTEP at C-USA Women's Tennis Championship

[ER9TC4]

HOUSTON, Texas (SMU)-No. 1 seed SMU women's tennis (25-2) blanked (4-0) No. 8 seed UTEP (15-7) in their first round match up of the Conference USA Championships on Friday, April 17 at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.

The Mustangs improve to 25-2 on the season and extended their winning streak to 15 matches with the win

Standout freshman doubles tandem, No. 28 Marta Lesniak and Aleksandra Malyarchikova claimed the morning's first victory with an 8-2 defeat against UTEP's top pair Bloczynska/Pritchard. Moving up the charts, senior Natalia Bubien and junior Pavi Francis also collected a win under the new ranking of No. 74, while senior Kseniia Tokarieva and junior Nicole Briceno notched their 20th victory of the season to rank third in team doubles victories in a season.

In singles, No. 60 Lesniak trounced (6-0, 6-1) Bloczynska in the number one spot. Tokarieva had a similar showing over (6-0, 6-1) Ximena Fuentes, improving her season record to 17-1. Senior Kristen Reid captured the final match win in competition, ousting Pritchard in straight sets (6-0, 6-2).

The Mustangs will be making their third semifinal appearance in four seasons as a member of C-USA and will be looking to advance to their second championship match.

The No. 23 Mustangs will face host and No. 5 seed Rice in Saturday's quarterfinals at 12:00 p.m. at Jake Hess Stadium.

[Terry Webster]

Beat Rice today 4-0.