March 20, 2007

Results

Daytona Beach, Fla. - The University of Rhode Island collected their first loss of the season on Tuesday as the Bethune-Cookman University Wildcats downed the Rams by a score of 5-2 at the City Island Tennis Complex in Daytona Beach, Fla.

A hard-fought doubles point eventually went the way of B-CU (14-2) as the team of Olga Ruislova and Kiara Powell improved to 12-2 in the spring with a tough 9-8 (5) win over URI's Lara Maurer and Grace Hedstrom. The No. 2 position doubles team of Lucia Polakova and Valerie Kendrick improved to 9-3 in the spring campaign with an 8-4 win over Valerie Chacon and Nyssa Peele.

URI took the No. 3 doubles position set with Amanda Barletta and Steff Catanzano knocking off B-CU's Jeneice Ward and Monika Musilova, 8-4.

In singles play, URI (3-1) looked determined to take the match as B-CU's Olga Ruislova was downed in the No. 1 position by Rams' top player Lara Maurer on scores of 6-3, 6-0 in a straight-set win. For Ruislova, it was her second consecutive loss of the week after falling to the racket of Katerina Lozanova of St. Louis on Saturday.

Bethune-Cookman swept the No. 2-5 positions in singles play to win the match.

Lucia Polakova won at the No. 2 position with a straight-set 6-1, 6-2 win over Valerie Chacon. And sophomore Kiara Powell kept her record almost unblemished in the spring with a 6-1, 6-1 win over URI's Nyssa Peele.

With the win, Powell upped her record to 14-1. She has gone to a third set just once in the spring thus far.

Monika Musilova stayed perfect at the No. 4 spot with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Grace Hedstrom, and Valerie Kendrick collected her fourth consecutive victory at the No. 5 spot with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Amanda Barletta.

The only other loss was at the No. 6 spot as B-CU freshman Jeneice Ward fell to Steff Catanzano in one of the greatest matches of the day on scores of 7-5, 1-6, 10-5 for a supermatch defeat.

With the win, the Wildcats have now won four straight matches, and look to reach 15 wins in the fastest fashion since head coach Trey Bogue arrived at B-CU just over six seasons ago. The `Cats went 15-3 to start the year last year, while they look for a tough 15-2 record this year, but it will have to come on the road against a very tough MEAC competitor on Friday morning.

The Wildcats get back to the courts on Friday when they take on Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference foe Norfolk State University at 9 a.m. in Norfolk, Va.