TicketsBearcats Open Final C-USA Tourney on Thursday
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
4/18/2005
Jill Klauck leads UC with 22 combined wins. |
MATCH FACTS:
Date: Thu., April 21, 2005
Time: 9 a.m. CT
Site: Bayard H. Freeman Tennis Center
Ft. Worth, Texas
Records: Cincinnati, 4-14 (0-4 C-USA)
No. 70 Houston, 15-8 (0-1 C-USA)
The University of Cincinnati women?s tennis team opens its final Conference USA Tournament on Thursday, April 21 when the 13th-seeded Bearcats face No. 70 and four-seed Houston. Match time from the Bayard Freeman Tennis Center in Ft. Worth, Texas is 9 a.m. CT. UC is 4-14 has dropped its last five matches while the Lady Cougars are 15-8 and winners of five of their last seven. In the double-elimination tourney the victor will face the winner of DePaul vs. Memphis and the other faces the loser of the Louisville vs. Marquette contest.
CLIMBING THE CHARTS: Senior captain Samantha Liu has been one of UC?s top doubles players throughout her career and it is starting to show up in the record book. She currently has 53 career doubles wins to rank 10th in school history, just one short of a tie for eighth. Her freshman year she posted 24 doubles wins for the second-best season in Bearcat annals.
TOUGH MONTH: UC?s spring schedule was jam-packed in February. The Bearcats faced nine of their 18 dual matches in the shortest month of the year, including a pair of three-match weekends and two ranked opponents. They then played just once in March before taking on C-USA foes and the league tournament in April.
MOVING UP: Jill Klauck has led the Bearcats in wins in each of the last two seasons, though most of those wins came in the bottom third of the lineup. This year she has moved up to the top half and the success has not stopped. She leads the team with 15 singles wins and 10 dual wins, four coming at the No. 2 spot. Additionally, the tandem of Jill and her sister Julie have produced seven of UC?s 18 doubles wins.
ROUGH SCHEDULE: Houston will be the fifth ranked opponent for the Bearcats this season. UC has gone 0-4 against the previous four and earned two points in the matches.
UPS AND DOWNS: The Bearcats have had an up and down season with just four wins and three 4-3 losses, but the No. 5 spot has just been down. UC has gone just 2-16 in the No. 5 position, with freshman Lindsay Brown and senior Julie Klauck each earning the one win. At No. 3, however, the Bearcats are 9-9, largely on the strength of Jill Klauck?s 6-4 mark at the spot.
GETTING A WORKOUT: Last year Hannah Hinton was the second on team with 33 matches played and 17 wins. She led the team, however, in three-set matches with nine. Seven of her final 13 matches went the distance. This year three of her 11 matches, including two of the last three, have gone three sets.
DOUBLES SUCCESS: The Bearcat roster boasts three players who have each posted one of the 10 best doubles seasons in school history. Senior Samantha Liu won 24 doubles matches as a freshman, the second-highest single-season win total at UC, and sophomore Hannah Hinton won 23 last year to rank fourth. Senior Julie Klauck posted 20 doubles wins, also in her freshman season, to rank ninth all-time. Liu, with 53 career doubles wins, is 10th in UC annals. At least one of the three has had a hand in 16 of UC?s 18 doubles wins.