Tennis plays final two home matches Saturday, Sunday
4/11/2008 1:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
HUNTSVILLE ? The Sam Houston State women's tennis team wraps up its 2008 regular season schedule with a pair of home matches Saturday and Sunday at the McAdams Tennis Center on campus.
The Bearkats play host to UTSA Saturday and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Sunday. Both dual matches begin at 11 a.m. Admission is free.
The tennis team is making its first home appearance in more than a month. Sam Houston's last home match was Sunday, March 2, when the Kats defeated McNeese State 5-2. Since then, SHSU has rolled up a 4-3 league record on the road to up their 2008 Southland mark to five victories and four losses.
Victories in both matches Saturday would allow the Bearkats to nail down at least a number five seed in the Southland Conference post-season tournament. The eight top finishers in the final regular season standings earn berths in the SLC tournament to be held Friday-Sunday, April 25-27, at Nacogdoches at Stephen F. Austin's new tennis center.
Sam Houston State is led by two juniors who are putting their mark on the Bearkat women's tennis record book. Irina Sotnikova of Riga, Latvia, has become the all-time “winningest” singles player in SHSU history. She has teamed with doubles partner Peta Taylor of Ardross, Australia, to set a season record for doubles wins this spring.
Sotnikova stands 16-10 in overall singles play and 13-5 at number one singles in dual matches this year. That gives her an overall career record of 59-22 in three years as a Bearkat. The old record for career wins was set last year by Lata Assudano who went 57-39 in her three years at Sam Houston.
Sotnikova and Taylor are 25-7 in doubles play this season including a 17-2 record at number one doubles in dual match play. The pair are unbeaten, 9-0, in Southland Conference action.
In three years Sotnikova, teaming with Assudani as a freshman and a sophomore and with Taylor this year, is 69-17 in doubles play. That breaks Assudani's school record for doubles wins with all partners of 58 victories.
Saturday and Sunday's matches also mark the final home appearance for the lone senior on the 2008 team, Patti Manzur of Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Manzur has played at number five and six singles the past two years after transferring from Missouri State.
