NEW ORLEANS – A two-match week commences on Thursday when the New Orleans Privateers women's tennis team (8-4) makes up a postponed match from the previous week against Bradley. The Privateers will face Marshall on Friday. Both matches are at the University Tennis Center.
The Privateers were to play Bradley on Mar. 15, but a scheduling conflict forced the match to be postponed until Thursday. This will be the second all-time meeting against the Braves. The two sides met in 2015 with the Privateers scoring a 6-1 decision at home. New Orleans has never faced Marshall in their program history.
"I think both are going to be good matches," said Coach
Burzis Kanga. "We certainly should take advantage of playing at home and having Claudette back helps us. These two matches can be very critical to give us some confidence heading back into conference play next weekend."
After this week, New Orleans will embark on a six-match road trip with five of those coming against Southland opponents. The only non-conference match left on the schedule is an early April bout against Tulane.
Claudette Gilhespie made her return to the lineup on Sunday against Florida A&M and hooked up with doubles partner,
Lea Alguacil for a 7-5 victory. The tandem has provided one of several solid doubles pairings and they have not been defeated in five matches together this season.
Trang Dao co-leads the team in singles wins with seven. Her career total is at 45, which is fourth among all Privateers since 2000. Dao has won three of her matches at flight one and the other four at flight two.
Ank Vullings has alternated with Dao between flight one and two. The freshman has a 6-5 mark in her first year of collegiate competition.
Bradley (9-6) has won just one of their five matches away from home. The Braves recently lost a 7-0 decision to Southern Miss. Before heading to New Orleans, the Braves will take on another Southland foe in Nicholls on Wednesday. Three players have 10 singles wins this season: Bozana Lojpur, Sandra Maletin, and Malini Wijesinghe.
Marshall (4-10) has won back-to-back matches entering the week. They defeated a pair of conference foes in Middle Tennessee and UAB. The Thundering Herd will also play two matches in a weekend. They'll make the trip to Tulane on Saturday. Anna Smith has racked up the most singles wins with nine. Madi Ballow has a 4-1 mark against C-USA opponents.
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