ECU To Face Southern Miss In C-USA Tourney
April 18, 2011 | Women's Tennis
April 18, 2011
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The Lady Pirates will try to make it four first-round wins in a row when the 2011 Conference USA Women's Tennis Championship Tournament opens Thursday in Orlando, Fla.
Ironically, seventh-seeded East Carolina will face a familiar opponent despite the absence of a C-USA regular season round-robin schedule.
ECU and No. 10 Southern Miss will square off in opening-round action, marking the second meeting between the two teams this spring. However, unlike the 5-2 Lady Pirate victory at the ECU Tennis Complex March 11, this meeting will take place at the Lake Cane Tennis Center beginning at 10 a.m.
Other first-round battles Thursday include No. 6 Memphis vs. No. 11 UTEP (10 a.m.), No. 8 Tulane vs. No. 9 Houston (2 p.m.) and No. 5 UCF vs. No. 12 UAB (2 p.m.). No. 1 Tulsa, No. 2 SMU, No. 3 Marshall and No. 4 Rice all earned opening-round byes.
Veteran head coach Tom Morris has guided the Lady Pirates to a 17-8 regular season record this spring, fueled in part by a torrid start which included wins in 10 of the first 12 matches. Prior to his current 17-victory campaign, Morris helped ECU produce the top five single-season win totals in school history over the last six campaigns - a 17-9 mark in 2005, back-to-back school-record 19-9 and 19-10 finishes in 2006 and 2007, a 17-6 ledger in 2008 and an 18-10 standing in 2010.
East Carolina has benefitted from strong singles play in 2011, most notably from senior Jessica Cook (11-9) at No. 1 and freshmen Manon Bissat (14-5) at No. 6 and Neena Wanko (15-7) at No. 4 - all key contributors to the Lady Pirates' overall 92-57 record and .617 winning percentage. Cook has also played a key role in ECU's doubles efforts, combining with sophomore Yilian Zhang for a squad-best 7-1 pairs mark.
ECU, which has produced an 10-11 ledger in nine previous C-USA Tournament appearances, will also try to surpass its top finish of fifth place accomplished in 2003, 2006 and 2008. The Lady Pirates have captured at least one victory in seven of the nine tourneys, with a program-best three triumphs in 2003.
