Tulsa Women's Tennis Weekly Release
4/9/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 9, 2002
TU Wraps Up 2001-02 Regular Season vs. SMU, TCU:
Tulsa (14-7) will travel south of the Red River this weekend to battle former Western Athletic Conference foe TCU and current WAC rival SMU in the final regular season matches of the 2001-02 season for the Golden Hurricane.
On Saturday, April 13, TU faces the 29th-ranked Horned Frogs (14-4) at 12 noon at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The last time these two teams met was in the 2001 WAC Championship semifinals in Fresno, Calf. In that match, TCU defeated Tulsa, 4-1, and went on to claim the conference team title a day later.
TU will make the short trip across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex on Sunday, April 14 to the Haggar Tennis Center on the SMU campus for a 12 noon meeting with the Mustangs (13-9). Last season, TU slipped past 42nd-ranked SMU at home, 4-3.
TU Falls to No. 39 Oklahoma State, Upends No. 57 Tulane:
Last week, the 58th-ranked Golden Hurricane dropped a 6-1 decision at 39th-ranked Oklahoma State in Stillwater. Junior and 97th-ranked Alicia Pillay (Pietermaritzbyrg, South Africa) picked up TU's lone point in singles play.
In the final home match of the regular season against 57th-ranked Tulane, TU won the doubles point and three singles matches to pull off the upset win. Tulsa concluded the home portion of the 2001-02 schedule with an 11-1 mark and improved its home record to 31-6 (.840) since the 1998-99 campaign.
The Hurricane received doubles wins at the top position from Pillay and senior Jana Sedivec (Montreal, Canada) and from the No. 2 duo of junior Aleksandra Durska (Pobiedziska, Poland) and sophomore Mariana Barrios (Katy, Texas). Barrios and Durska each won their respective singles matches, but it was Pillay's, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, win at No. 1 that clinched the win.
Pillay Named WAC Player of the Week:
TU's Alicia Pillay was named the WAC women's tennis Player of the Week on April 1 for the week of March 25-31.
Pillay led the Golden Hurricane to a 3-0 record two weeks ago. From the No. 1 position, she was 3-0 in singles, including a win over 12th-ranked Sarah Borwell of Houston, as well as 3-0 in doubles with partner Jana Sedivec.
Pillay picked up the biggest win of her career at Tulsa when she topped Borwell, then ranked as the 12th-best player in the country. Pillay dropped the first set to Borwell, 3-6, but rebounded with a 6-2 win in the second set and a 6-3 victory in the third set.
Durska, Sedivec Ranked Among TU's Five Winningest Singles Players:
Aleksandra Durska and Jana Sedivec are each ranked among the school's winningest singles players. In just under three seasons, Durska is eight wins shy of becoming the school's career singles leader. With 85 wins, she needs eight more victories to pass Jennifer DeSpain (1997-2001), TU's current top-ranked singles player with 92 career wins.
Sedivec ranks fourth among TU's career singles leaders with 69 victories and is four shy of passing former Hurricane two-time All-American Anousjka van Exel (1997-99) for third place. In two seasons at Tulsa, van Exel won an astonishing 73 singles matches.
McMurray Becomes TU's Winningest Coach:
Tulsa made Head Coach Paige McMurray the winningest coach in school history with a 5-2 victory over the University of Texas-Arlington on Feb. 24. McMurray surpassed former women's coach and current men's head coach, Vince Westbrook, for first place among TU's career coaching leaders with her 53rd career win. McMurray recently picked up her 60th win against UTEP.
