Complete Results

MOBILE, Ala. – Behind two straight-sets wins in singles, the University of South Alabama women's tennis team won its 18th straight match, tying the school mark, with a 4-0 victory over No. 47 Tulane Wednesday afternoon at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.

The Jaguars stay unbeaten on the season at 18-0 and pick up their first win over a ranked opponent since defeating No. 50 Old Dominion in 2009. The Green Wave fall to 16-8.

"This is a huge win," said USA head coach Jaco Keyser. "I know every match we try to treat it the same, but we've been trying to build towards this for a while and these are the matches we want to play. We want to play ranked teams and be a ranked program, so this is a nice step in the right direction.

"To be honest, I don't even care about the record. I just feel excited that we're playing good tennis at the right time of the year."

The Jags took a quick 1-0 lead after dropping just two games in doubles. Junior Paula Sanchez (Bogota, Colombia) and sophomore Monica Mitta (Fairhope, Ala.) blanked Tulane's pair 6-0 at No. 3, and senior Mary Angela Martin (Mobile, Ala.) and junior Michaela Meszarosova (Bratislava, Slovakia) won 6-1 at No. 2.

"Whenever you play the good teams, that doubles point is a huge swing point," Keyser stated. "The bottom line is, it's a lot easier to win three singles points than four singles points against good teams."

South Alabama took a 3-0 lead with victories at Nos. 1 and 6. Sophomore Laura Valkova (Piestany, Slovakia) defeated Ipek Birol 6-0, 7-5 on the No. 1 court, and Martin lost just three games at No. 6, defeating Meredith Maltby 6-1, 6-2.

"Mary Angela has done that for a long time and to do that today against a good player really gave us a boost," Keyser said. "Whenever you can get the No. 1 off the court quickly in your favor, that's huge. That's a spot we've been struggling with the last couple of years so whenever we can do that, I think we're a dangerous team."

The remaining singles matches went to three sets, with the Jaguars rallying from first-set losses in all four. Meszarosova fell 6-1 in the first set against Vanessa Nommensen on the No. 4 court, but dropped just three games after that in a 1-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory.

"That kind of sums up our team," Keyser said. "We've been playing good doubles and I think today was a reflecting of that. In singles, that's where Tulane is good. They'll keep coming at you and you have to put them away. I hate to say it again, but we've worked so hard on fitness and you start coming back in those second sets and turn three-set matches into wins. That says a lot about fitness and that's what we hang our hat on."

South Alabama closes out the regular season with road matches at Middle Tennessee (Friday) and North Texas (Sunday).

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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