MONROE, La. – The ULM women's tennis team has championship season on its mind, as it travels to Peachtree City, Georgia with the goal of defending its 2017 Sun Belt Conference Championship title. The Warhawks have been granted the sixth seed and will play the number 11 seed, Arkansas State on Thursday (April 19) at 11:30 a.m.
A first round win will lead the Hawks to a quarterfinal match-up on Friday (April 20) against the number three seed, Coastal Carolina at 11:30 a.m.
ULM Season Recap
After a dominating 2017 season, the Warhawks are looking to repeat their tournament success with a second-straight Sun Belt championship. ULM (10-7, 4-2) is looking ahead to the tournament after a tough 4-0 loss to non-conference opponent SMU. The Warhawks had just defeated both Texas State and Arkansas state on the road the week before, 4-1 and 4-0 respectively.
Leading the pack for ULM is senior
Stefana Andrei. Andrei, the former Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year has had a fantastic year. As the only Sun Belt athlete to represent the conference in the Main Draw of the ITA All-American Championships in the fall, she has gone on to go undefeated in the spring and takes a nine-match win streak into singles play on Thursday.
Andrei's doubles partner,
Karolina Snita is also seeing similar success on the court. Snita has compiled an 11-1 record in singles play, in addition to an 8-2 mark in doubles play. Snita and Andrei have won their last five doubles, four of which were against Sun Belt teams.
Scouting Arkansas State
Arkansas State has faced three conference teams this season, with only one weighing in its favor. Overall, the Red Wolves are 6-14; one of their losses came at the hands of ULM (April 7), when the Warhawks took down ASU, 4-1. Their last match was on April 14 against Georgia Southern, a match in which the Eagles defeated Arkansas State 4-1 just as ULM did the week before.
In singles play, ASU's top runner is Shelby King, who will be playing in the number one position for the Red Wolves and has posted a 5-9 record in that spot. King and her doubles' partner Shannon O'Brien will face Warhawks'
Teodora Radu and
Karolina Silwanowicz in the number two spot on Thursday. O'Brien and King at 10-7 at ASU's number twos.
Last year, the Red Wolves faced UT-Arlington in the first round, and dropped the match in 0-4 fashion.
Scouting Coastal Carolina
Coastal Carolina is boasting an impressive 16-6 record this season after its most recent 5-2 win over Depaul (April 14). ULM has yet to face CCU in competition this year. Coastal's top performer is undoubtedly Iryna Vardanian, who has stacked an 8-6 record in singles play, earning back-to-back Sun Belt Athlete of the Week awards on March 14
th and 21
st. In doubles play, CCU turns to Sara Bondar and Somer Dalla-Bona who are lined-up for the number one spot in the tournament for Coastal and have a 10-6 record in that position.
From the Conference Office
The 2018 Sun Belt Women's Tennis Championships brackets have been unveiled with Troy earning the women's top seed for the four-day event set for April 19-22 at the Peachtree Tennis Center in Peachtree City, Ga.
Competition gets underway with the women's first-round matches on Thursday and women's quarterfinals matches on Friday. The first two days of the championships are scheduled for live coverage on
RadioTennis.com.
The women's semifinals on Saturday and championship matches on Sunday are set for live coverage on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app with Matt Stewart and Ken Thomas calling the action.
Live scoring for all matches will be available on
SunBeltSports.org.
Troy grabbed the women's No. 1 seed for the first time in school history on the strength of two Intercollegiate Tennis Association top 90 wins over conference foes Georgia State and Coastal Carolina. The Trojans roll into the tournament on a five-match winning streak.
Admission is free for all 17 matches of the 2018 championships.
2018 SUN BELT TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE
All times Eastern and subject to change
Thursday, April 19
First Round
Women's Match 1: No. 9 Georgia Southern vs. No. 8 Louisiana, 8:00 AM
Women's Match 2: No. 11 Arkansas State vs. No. 6 ULM, 11:30 AM
Women's Match 3: No. 10 Texas State vs. No. 7 Appalachian State, 11:30 AM
Friday, April 20
Quarterfinals
Women's Match 4: Winner WM 1 vs. No. 1 Troy, 8:00 AM
Women's Match 5: No. 5 UTA vs. No. 4 South Alabama, 8:00 AM
Women's Match 6: Winner WM 2 vs. No. 3 Coastal Carolina, 11:30 AM
Women's Match 7: Winner WM 3 vs. No. 2 Georgia State, 11:30 AM
Saturday, April 21
Semifinals
Women's Match 8: Winner WM 4 vs. Winner WM 5 (TV: ESPN3), 10:00 AM
Women's Match 9: Winner WM 6 vs. Winner WM 7 (TV: ESPN3), 10:00 AM
Sunday, April 22
Women's Championship
Women's Match 10: Winner WM 8 vs. Winner WM 9 (TV: ESPN3), 10:00 AM
