Sept. 18, 2004

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn.

The University of Tennessee women's tennis team kept up the momentum built on the first day of the St. Mary's Fall Tennis Classic with a successful second round of play on Saturday, Sept. 18. All three Lady Vol doubles pairs took first place in their respective flights, while individually all six athletes won their singles matches, five of them advancing to flight finals.

"We've got a hardworking group that has really been focused," Co-Head Coach Mike Patrick said. "This is probably the best team we've had as far as work ethic since I've been at Tennessee. All the hard work and preparation pays off and I think we saw that today. It's still early and we have a lot to work on and improve on. Overall, we're very pleased."

The Tennessee duo of Sabita Maharaj (Gainesville, Fla.) and Ashley Robards (Henderson, Ky.) dominated the ITA 48th-ranked pair of Karin Coetzee and Ashlee Davis from Wake Forest 8-2 to take the flight one title. In flight three, UT's Victoria Jones (Tyne & Wear, U.K.) and Blakeley Griffith (Middleburg, Va.) stormed to an 8-4 win over the Kentucky pairing of Liis Sober and Caroline Winebrenner for the championship.

But the doubles match of the day came in the championship of flight two. Lady Vols Melissa Schaub (Lexington, Ohio) and Bryce Marable (Darien, Ill.) fell behind Purdue's Shawna Zuccarini and Brooke Beier 1-4, and then rallied before falling behind 4-6. From there, it was all Tennessee. Schaub ripped a serve between the Boilermaker pair to even the match at six. In all, UT's pair won four straight games to take the match 8-6.

"Melissa and Bryce are going to be a good pair and they showed today why they are going to be so good," Patrick said. "They have good skills and as the year goes on, they're both going to improve. They have a chance to be very special for us."

For Schaub, a junior who spent much of last year on the top doubles pair with departed senior Tammy Encina, the win was a huge step in gelling with her new partner, freshman Marable.

"Once we were down in the match, we just started to loosen up, which is something we need to do anyway," Schaub said. "We're still getting used to playing together and once we loosened up, we were able to play well and come away with a win."

No. 39 Sabita Maharaj continued her impressive play at the tournament by downing No. 64 Ashlee Davis of Wake Forest in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, in the first flight. Maharaj will face another Demon Deacon in the final, No. 18 Karin Coetzee on Sunday at 8 a.m. Coetzee defeated MTSU's Jennifer Klaschka, 6-1, 6-1 to reach the final.

In other singles action, Schaub backed up her doubles performance with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Marti Morris of Furman, putting the junior in a finals match-up with Jenna Loeb of Wake Forest, while doubles partner Marable will meet teammate Jones in the flight two final on Sunday. In the consolation bracket, freshman Daron Moore (North Hollywood, Calif.) downed Jacqui Williams of MTSU, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the fifth place match.

Sunday's action will begin with singles competition at 8 a.m. and will wrap up with play in the afternoon. All matches will be held at UT Varsity Courts and Goodfriend Tennis Center.

The following is the schedule of matches for the Lady Vols tomorrow.

* Indicates championship match