April 14, 2010

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Women's Tennis will begin to wind down their regular season play this weekend with matches against USD, Long Beach State and Portland. Coming off a tough past couple of weeks the Lions bounced back with a 6-1 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday. This weekend the Lions will face USD, Long Beach State and finally conference opponent Portland.

LIONS TO WATCH: Recently back in the line-up for the Lions, Shauna Morgan earned the Lion's only win against University of San Francisco in singles play. On court sic Morgan defeated Alana McMahon of USF 6-2, 6-2 to give the Lions their solo point on the day. Elisaveta Pironkova has also been playing well for the Lions, she has won 3 of her last five singles contests and has won two straight matches with doubles partner Jane Pringle. Pringle who has moved up to play at the number two position for the Lions has had some tough losses, however recently she and Pironkova has found some doubles success. Melissa Valenzuela is looking to snap a three-match slump as she previously had three straight wins against New Mexico State, UCSB and Saint Mary's.

TORREROS: The Torreros are 9-10 including a win over University of San Francisco and a close loss to Saint Mary's...projected to finish second in WCC preseason coaches poll...currently ranked no. 64 nationally...

LONG BEACH: The Beach is 15-3 this season and has big wins over UC Irvine, Cal Poly SLO and UCSB. They are currently ranked 33rd in the nation as of the April 6th ITA rankings release. Freshman, Jaklin Alawi, from Bulgaria is currently ranked 125th in ITA rankings and has played the no. 1 position for the Beach this season, she was also recently named the Big West player of the week.

PORTLAND: The Pilots are 4-11 this season with wins over Montana State, Portland State and Eastern Washington. The Pilots were polled to finish 7th in conference and are currently 7th overall in WCC standings. This will be a good conference match up for the Lions...