East Carolina University
Charleston Southern
Morris Captures No. 400 In Lady Pirate Victory
March 09, 2009 | Women's Tennis
March 9, 2009
CHARLESTON, N.C. - Natalie Collins and Tamara Sachs' 9-7 victory over Leonie Mandelkow and Olga Makhova in a No. 3 doubles match earned the Lady Pirates' opening point and eventually proved to be the difference as East Carolina edged Charleston Southern 4-3 in non-conference women's tennis action Monday afternoon.
The Lady Pirates, who extended their consecutive match win streak to three straight, improved to 8-2 and gave head coach Tom Morris his 400th career victory. The setback dropped the Lady Buccaneers to 1-5.
After East Carolina's Rocio Cabanillas and Brooke Walter opened doubles play with an 8-6 win over Marija Dzakovic and Brooke Pletcher at the No. 2 slot, Charleston Southern evened the ledger when Andrea Schutte and Angie Torres defeated Jessica Cook and Varinia Soler 9-7 at No. 1. Moments later, Collins and Sachs battled back from a 7-5 deficit and faced a 30-0 disadvantage while trailing 7-6 before rallying for the triumph to give the Lady Pirates an early 1-0 team lead.
In singles play, ECU picked up victories at the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 positions as Walter rolled past Dzakovic (6-2, 7-6), Cabanillas disposed of Torres (6-1, 7-5) and Sachs defeated Mandelkow (6-3, 6-1).
The Lady Buccaneers used wins by Makhova over Cook (6-1, 6-0) at No. 1, Pletcher over Soler (6-3, 6-3) at No. 2 and Schutte over Collins (6-0, 6-4) at No. 3 to capture the other three matches.
Morris, who is in his 11th season heading the Lady Pirates' program, currently ranks as East Carolina's all-time winningest tennis coach with a 225-163 record. Overall, he now owns a 400-265 mark in 19-plus years as a collegiate coach, which also includes service at Barton College from 1990 to 1998.
East Carolina will continue its three-match road swing Tuesday when it faces South Carolina State in Orangeburg beginning at 1:00 p.m.
EAST CAROLINA 4, CHARLESTON SOUTHERN 3
Singles Play
No. 1 - Olga Makhova (CSU) def. Jessica Cook (ECU); 6-1, 6-0
No. 2 - Brooke Pletcher (CSU) def. Varinia Soler (ECU); 6-3, 6-3
No. 3 - Andrea Schutte (CSU) def. Natalie Collins (ECU); 6-0, 6-4
No. 4 - Brooke Walter (ECU) def. Marija Dzakovic (CSU); 6-2, 7-6
No. 5 - Rocio Cabanillas (ECU) def. Angie Torres (CSU); 6-1, 7-5
No. 6 - Tamara Sachs (ECU) def. Leonie Mandelkow (CSU); 6-3, 6-1
Doubles Play
No. 1 - Schutte/Torres (CSU) def. Cook/Soler (ECU); 9-7
No. 2 - Cabanillas/Walter (ECU) def. Dzakovic/Pletcher (CSU); 8-6
No. 3 - Collins/Sachs (ECU) def. Mandelkow/Makhova (CSU); 9-7
Team Records: East Carolina 8-2, Charleston Southern 1-5
