Herd Tennis Takes Care of Feisty Falcons, 7-0
MU Honors Three-time MAC Champ Senior Class

4/23/2005

Senior Ashley Kroh receives her flowers and balloons from Assistant Coach Laurie Mercer during senior day festivities to honor its five players from the most successful class in Marshall tennis history Saturday at the Huntington Tennis Club. Kroh moved to within one win of becoming the winningest player in Marshall history in the match vs. Bowling Green. Photo by Matt Riley

BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. – The Thundering Herd tennis team sent off its seniors with a 7-0 win over Bowling Green to close out the Mid-American Conference regular season Saturday afternoon at the Huntington Tennis Club on Senior Day.

Marshall has won nine straight matches by a 7-0 count and improves to 16-7 on the year and 8-1 in the MAC. The Herd will enter the MAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed next week in Muncie, Ind. Bowling Green drops to 12-9 on the year and 4-5 in MAC play.

“Today was a little emotional with senior day, but we were able to keep our focus and continue to gain momentum heading into the tournament,” Marshall head coach John Mercer said. “We’re definitely going to miss this group of seniors, but we hope to give them one last championship memory next week.”

The Herd clinched the doubles point with a sweep of all three matches. Joelle Good (Zurich, Switzerland) and Danielle Hock (Wigan England) were 8-5 winners at No. 1 over Schoenberger/Roemer. At No. 2, Ashley Kroh (Louisville, Ky.) and partner Jeanne Schwartz (West Palm Beach, Fla.) knocked off Jakupcin/Nussbaum 8-2 and on court three, Lille Nzudie (Duoala, Cameroon) and Shannon Brown (Overland Park, Kan.) won 8-2 over Volle/Meister.

Following the doubles portion of the match, the Herd’s class of 2005 was honored in a brief ceremony. The class then continued to add to its impressive MAC numbers by upping their overall win total in MAC individual matches to 273-15, and 43-2 as a team.

In singles, Kroh defeated Schoenberger on court one with a 6-3, 6-2 result to give her 194 career overall victories to propel her to No. 2 on the all-time list, just one behind Anna Mitina. She is also just one doubles win behind Mitina for the all-time lead in that category.

At No. 2, Nzudie battled through a three-set match, but prevailed in the end after dominating the third for a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 win over Jakupcin. Good then picked up her 91st career singles win at No. 3 as she downed Volle, 6-1, 6-3. Good now is just two wins away from tying the all-time singles mark of 93 set by Alyssa Bengel.

On court four, Hock continued her MAC domination to round out her career with a record of 32-0 in league play. The senior from Wigan, England downed Nussbaum 6-1, 6-4. Schwartz cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 5 over Meister and Brown took care of Benjamin at No. 6 with a 6-3, 6-2 win to finish things off for the Herd.

Marshall will now head to its final MAC Tournament to try and claim its fourth title in as many years before leaving for Conference USA next season. Western Michigan will be the No. 1 seed for the tournament that starts on Thursday at Ball State.



RESULTS – Marshall vs. Bowling Green
DOUBLES
No. 1 – Good/Hock def. Schoenberger/Roemer 8-5
No. 2 – Kroh/Schwartz def. Jakupcin/Nussbaum 8-2
No. 3 – Brown/Nzudie def. Volle/Meister 8-2

SINGLES
No. 1 – Kroh def. Schoenberger 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 – Nzudie def. Jakupcin 6-1, 3-6, 6-0
No. 3 – Good def. Volle 6-1, 6-3
No. 4 – Hock def. Nussbaum 6-1, 6-4
No. 5 – Schwartz def. Meister 6-0, 6-1
No. 6 – Brown def. Benjamin 6-3, 6-2