Oct. 21, 2010

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TOURNAMENT TIME
The Wayne State women's tennis team opens up this year's GLIAC Tournament at the Midland Tennis Center as the fourth-seed and is set to play No. 5 Ashland University tomorrow at 6:45 p.m. The Warriors come in riding a two-game win streak, while the Eagles dropped two 5-4 decisions to Ferris State and Grand Valley State in their latest competition. The winner of the match advances to play either No. 1 Grand Valley State or No. 8 Lake Superior State on Saturday at 3:45 p.m.

GLIAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Warriors have placed fourth the past two seasons. Only three teams have won the tourney since its beginning in 1999. Northwood University has owned the tournament in recent memory, winning the past seven titles. Ferris State University has won it three times and Northern Michigan University once.

Spanning from 1975 to 1980, WSU won five straight conference titles. Since then, the Warriors best mark was two straight runner-up finishes in 1994 and 1995.

SCOUTING ASHLAND
This will be the fourth straight year Wayne State and Ashland have met in the conference tournament with the Warriors coming out on top in the last three. WSU has won four straight matches over the Eagles dating back to October 26, 2008.

The Eagles come into Friday's match in fifth place in the division with a 7-4 conference record, and are 8-4 overall. In singles, Ashland is led by the trio of Victoria Goudy, Paige Cooper and Kira Kotova. Goudy is the teams' No. 1 and has a 7-3 conference record this season. Cooper has seen action at both the No. 2 and No. 3 spot, posting an 8-3 mark. Kotova has also bounced back and forth between flights, going 11-1 in the No. 4 and 5 places.

The Eagles' duo of Corinne Pasley and Alexandra Ware has the fourth-best mark at No.2 doubles in the conference at 8-3.

In an early season battle of unbeatens, Wayne State bested Ashland on September 5, 8-1. Sharon Gill and Kristina Goranskaya beat Goudy and Cooper, 8-4, in No. 1 doubles.

Not to be outdone, McCall Monte and Milena Vuksanovic defeated Corinne Pasley and Ware, 8-4, while Jennifer Bradford and Jessica Kruczek bested Kotova and Megan Gisclon, 8-1.

In No. 1 singles, Gill won over Goudy 6-1, 6-1. Goranskaya continued the trend as she beat Cooper, 6-2, 6-2. Also winning in straight sets was Vuksanovic and Bradford.

After dropping her first set 5-7 to Ware, Debora Correa battled back in No. 5 singles to take the final two sets of the match 7-5, (10-8).

AT THE HELM
Shelia Snyder is in her 22nd season as Wayne State's head tennis coach and has a record of 192-140. After taking over in 1989, she has guided the Warriors to five NCAA Tournament appearances.

WARRIOR NOTEBOOK
With 75 career singles wins and 69 doubles wins, Gill is the all-time leader at WSU in both categories. Coming in, she has posted a 10-1 conference No. 1 singles record, which is second-best in the GLIAC. In addition, she has teamed with Kristina Goranskaya to have the best doubles mark of any No. 1 doubles team at 10-0.

Goranskaya is tied for the GLIAC lead at No. 2 singles, going 9-2 thus far, while the team of Vuksanovic and Monte has the fifth-best winning percentage of any No. 2 doubles team at 6-3.