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NEW ORLEANS – Junior Michaela Meszarosova (Bratislava, Slovakia) pulled out a marathon three-set match to give the University of South Alabama women's tennis team a 4-3 win over Texas-Arlington and its first Sun Belt Conference title since 2003 Sunday afternoon at the City Park Tennis Center.

The Jaguars earn their 17th conference title—most in league history—and receive the SBC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a 21-2 record. The Mavericks fall to 16-6.

"It's been a while, so this is probably one of the most emotional conference wins I've ever had as a player or a coach just because we've come a long way," said USA head coach Jaco Keyser, who earned his second conference championship as a head coach. "I honestly believed we deserved this conference tournament; there's no one who works harder than this team in this conference, I know that for a fact. For them to be rewarded is pretty satisfying.

"For the tennis program, this is huge.  I'm just so happy for the two seniors—Emily Newton and Mary Angela Martin—to win conference and get to the NCAAs. Four years ago we were in a pretty dark place with our program and had to start from scratch, and they came in at a time where we really needed quality people. They bought in from day one, so to see them come full circle from where we were when they were freshmen, I cannot put that in words how much that means. It sounds easy to rebuild a program, but without quality people it's impossible. For us to be fortunate enough to sign up two Alabama girls and build from scratch, we—as a tennis program and a school—have plenty of thanks to give to them."

Meszarosova's win was one of four singles matches that went three sets. She defeated Astrid Gehre on the No. 4 court 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 after trailing in the final frame.

"This was the most important one out of all the matches from the three years I've been here," Meszarosova said. "To clinch means so much to me, I'm just so happy that we were able to win the conference [tournament].

"I was down 5-4 when all the other matches finished, everybody came to the court and I missed my first ball and went down 15-love. In my mind I was saying that I cannot lose this match. I was trying to stay mentally tough, I knew that if started to look around that I would get distracted and I wanted to stay focused on the match."

The Jaguars, after taking the doubles point, were forced to rally after Texas-Arlington took the first two singles contests. Augustina Serio defeated Newton (Dothan, Ala.) 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3 to tie the match at 1-1, and Christine Foote came back against sophomore Laura Matuskova (Bratislava, Slovakia) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

South Alabama took the next two matches to go up 3-2. Martin (Mobile, Ala.) downed Jessica Birowski 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) at No. 5, and sophomore Monica Mitta (Fairhope, Ala.) outlasted Angeles de los Rios 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 on the No. 2 court.

"I saw that we had won five first sets, then I saw that people were down in the second so I knew that I didn't need to go to a third set," Martin said. "I pushed as hard as I could and focused on winning my second set, and once I was done I cheered everyone else on."

Elizabeth Thoms knotted the match at 3-3 with a comeback win at No. 1 over sophomore Laura Valkova (Piestany, Slovakia), 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.

The Jaguars went up 1-0 after doubles with victories at Nos. 1 and 2. Valkova and Newton defeated Thoms and de los Rios 8-3 at the top spot, and Martin and Meszarosova topped Birowski and Gehre 8-5.

"We played good doubles, that's our strength," Keyser stated. "I was surprised that we jumped on them in singles, but they're a good team and I knew they were going to come back. I thought we might squeeze them for a while, but that was wishful thinking; UT Arlington is a tough team, every time it comes down to the last match. It probably went as scripted."

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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