March 2, 2003

MU Tennis (8-1, 3-0) overcame sickness as well as the Louisville Cardinals and Colorado Buffaloes. "Looking back, this was a strange weekend," said MU Coach Blake Starkey, "but we'll take it."

On Friday night, the Tigers defeated Louisville 4-2 playing an abreviated format of singles only. Both coaches agreed ahead of time to play the doubles only if necessary as a tie-breaker. The Tigers took the top four singles matches to clinch the team match. Once clinched, some changes were made down low to rest players for the next day. "Their number one was very good, and I liked playing her," said MU's Juric. "We didn't know what was going to happen with the Louisville match, because they came in here at 10-2, and couldn't remember the last time they had lost," said MU Assistant Cecily Dubusker. "We knew they'd be confident, and they were. We had to fight, but we got out of it ok."

On Saturday, the Tigers defeated Colorado 4-3. The Tigers took two of three doubles to clinch the doubles point, and then split the singles action. The Tigers won singles matches 1-3, and dropped spots 3-6. "Colorado has a great team this year, and has won a bunch of matches over highly ranked teams. Nicole has been doing a great job with them. This was a very tight match, and I'm very proud of the way we came through. Even though they were beaten tonight, I was very proud of Mary and Kristina because they were both sick and running fevers, but you couldn't keep them out of the match. Urska and Katka both showed a lot of heart and poise winning tight three-setters over very good opponents. I'm very proud of what our team did, but I also have a lot of respect for Nicole and that entire group from Colorado."

The Tigers will take to the road next weekend to take on Conference foes Baylor and Texas Tech.

#46 Mizzou def. #68 Louisville 4-2

SINGLES:

#26 Urska Juric (MU) def. Marie Louis Frollich-Hansen (UL) 6-4, 7-5

Katka Sevcikova (MU) def. Kelly Taylor (UL) 7-5, 6-1

Hana Kraftova (MU) def. Julie Penn (UL) 6-4, 6-3

Lucie Ruskova (MU) def. Jasmin Singh (UL) 7-5, 6-1

Mariana Torres (UL) def. Kristina Olshanskaya (MU) 4-6, 2-4 (def.)

Paige Eber (UL) def. Britteny Holliday (MU) 6-2, 6-1

#46 Mizzou def. #45 Colorado 4-3

DOUBLES:

#4 Juric/Sevcikova (MU) def. Lemperle/Domingo (CU) 8-4

Sall/Strandemo (CU) def. Olshanskaya/Ruskova (MU) 8-6

Kraftova/Barry (MU) def. Vanderdys/Burrows (CU) 9-7

SINGLES:

#26 Urska Juric (MU) def. Dominique Lemperle (CU) 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-1

Katka Sevcikova (MU) def. Lia Dimingo (CU) 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3

Hana Kraftova (MU) def. Kate Lutgert (CU) 6-3, 6-3

Kendra Strandemo (CU) def. Lucie Ruskova (MU) 7-6(4), 6-4

Jessica Vanderdys (CU) def. Mary Barry (MU) 7-5, 6-1

Morgan Sall (CU) def. Kristina Olshanskaya (MU) 6-4, 6-3