Women's Tennis Takes on WKU at SBC Championships

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee's women's tennis team begins its quest for a first-ever Sun Belt Conference championship Friday at 8 a.m., taking on Western Kentucky at the Goldfield Tennis Center in Denton, Texas. The Blue Raiders (7-12) won three of their final four matches of the season, including victories over conference foes Arkansas State and Troy. Middle Tennessee is seeded sixth in the 12-team field, its highest seeding in the tournament since earning a No. 3 seed in 2004. A win against the Lady 'Toppers would put Middle Tennessee into a quarterfinal matchup with 53rd-ranked South Alabama at 3 p.m. on Friday. The Lady Jaguars are the No. 3 seed in this year's field and defeated the Blue Raiders, 5-2, in Murfreesboro on March 26. Junior Claudia Szabo says the team must focus on its match against Western Kentucky and not look ahead to a rematch with South Alabama. "This year we need to take it one match at a time. We can't get ahead of ourselves," Szabo said. "We need to treat every match like it's going to be the [tournament] final." Szabo also said that this year's team is much different than her first two years when Middle Tennessee limped into the tournament. The Blue Raiders have knocked off fifth-seeded Troy, ranked 74th nationally this week, and felt like they let the match against South Alabama slip away. "This year we've worked a lot harder on and off the court. The team is mentally prepared and believes in themselves more than in the past," Szabo said. "A lot of the teams we've lost to have been tough teams, and at the start of the semester maybe we weren't ready. But now I think we can beat those teams that we were losing to 4-3 and 4-2 at the beginning of the year." Szabo has been through and up-and-down year, experimenting in the fall with hitting two-handed on both sides. The Morwell, Australia, native says the trials and tribulations of trying something different has been beneficial for her entire game in the long run. "Trying to play two-handed on both sides has really helped my tennis overall. It helped my one-handed forehand and the biggest thing it did was help with the technique. It also gave me some confidence that I can try different things and still be successful." Full results from the Sun Belt Championships may be found at www.sunbeltsports.org and a bracket for the event may be found at http://www.goblueraiders.com/content.cfm/id/25553.

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Claudia Szabo

Middle Tennessee State University Athletics