March 25, 2006

Barboursville, W.Va. - The No. 20 ranked William and Mary Tribe was too much for the Thundering Herd Saturday afternoon in women's tennis action at the Huntington Tennis Club as the Tribe came away with a 6-1 win over No. 73 ranked Marshall.

Marshall drops to 13-6 with the loss and William and Mary improves to 12-6 on the year with the win.

"It was really tough match that our young team will benefit from in the future," Marshall head coach John Mercer said. "I thought it was a great match overall and these are the matches that you want to play to get better if you want to be a top 25 program like we do."

The Tribe got on the board first by taking two of three doubles matches and then went on to win five of six singles matches en route to the 6-1 victory over the Herd.

Marshall's brightest spots on the day were wins at No. 1 doubles and No. 5 singles. Marshall also honored senior Holly Asel in the Herd's final home match of the year and former standout Anna Mitina with an M-Club blanket.

Lynzee Kever and Kellie Schmitt held on for an 8-6 win over Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic. The Tribe duo is ranked No. 21 in the nation and the Herd pair proved it could play with anyone. With the match tied 6-6, Kellie Schmitt held serve in a closely contested game and then Kever and Schmitt broke Zoricic's serve for the first time of the match in the final to game to win 8-6.

"It was a great match and I'm glad we finally pulled out a close one over a ranked team," Mercer said. "That's a big time win for Lynzee and Kellie."

In singles, Soor battled back after dropping the first set 7-6, the Sweden native earned a 6-3 win in the second and then clawed back after falling behind 4-1 in the tiebreaker for the third set to win it 10-7.

Despite those two wins, it was William and Mary that proved why they are ranked No. 20 in the latest ITA poll. In doubles, Megan Muth and Lauren Cash held on for an 8-6 win despite a comeback by Shannon Brown and Soor after falling behind 7-4. The Tribe would also pick up a win on court three in doubles as Lingda Yang and Barb Zidek defeated Jeanne Schwartz and Jessica Keener 8-4.

In singles, No. 14 ranked Moulton-Levy took care of Kever 6-0, 6-2 at No. 1 for the Tribe's first singles win. At No. 3, Muth defeated Schwartz 6-2, 6-2 and to clinch the match for the Tribe, Cash beat Brown 6-4, 6-3.

On court two, it was an evenly matched showdown between Schmitt and No. 56 ranked Zoricic. Zoricic took the first 6-3, and Schmitt won the second 6-2 to set up a third set tiebreaker because the match had already been clinched by William and Mary with wins on courts three and four. Zoricic would prevail despite another valiant effort by the Herd freshman in which she came up short in her attempt to knock off a ranked opponent in a tiebreaker. Zoricic won the third set tiebreaker 10-7.

Soor would get the Herd's only win on court five and then Yang defeated Keener in the final match at No. 6 with a 6-1, 6-3 win to end it.

"William and Mary is a great team with great tradition and I thought our players fought really hard and we'll really benefit from this down the stretch," Mercer said.

The Herd returns to action next weekend at No. 69 ranked Louisville.