March 11, 2003

Hilton Head, S.C. - The Western Carolina women's tennis team claimed a 6-1 victory over the Purple Aces of Evansville Monday in the first of three matches in the team's annual Spring Break tournament. The Cats are now 2-4 overall and 0-1 in the SoCon.

WCU won the doubles point as Rocio Perez and Erin Johnson defeated Elizabeth Hedde and Rachel Tessier, 8-2, and Kristin Munn and Kristin Cotton dropped Erica Baas and Charly Kraft, 8-1. Number one seed Shannon Zalinski and Megan Bechtold fell to Jessica Jetton and Brooke Hoener, 8-5.

The Lady Cats took five of six singles matches from the Aces with second seeded Perez sweeping Tessier; 6-0, 6-0. After splitting the first two sets; 4-6, 6-4; Zalinski and Baas played a 10-point tie-breaker in which Zalinski pulled out the 10-4 win.

WCU continues its tournament play against IUPUI-Fort Wayne at 11:00 am on Tuesday and Northern Kentucky at 8:00 am on Wednesday.

Doubles
Jetton/Hoener (UE) def. Bechtold/Zalinski (WCU); 8-5
Johnson/Perez (WCU) def. Hedde/Tessier (UE); 8-2
Munn/Cotton (WCU) def. Baas/Kraft (UE); 8-1

Singles
Jessica Jetton (UE) def. Megan Bechtold (WCU); 6-4, 6-3
Rocio Perez (WCU) def. Rachel Tessier (UE); 6-0, 6-0
Kristin Munn (WCU) def. Brooke Hoener (UE); 6-2, 6-0
Kristin Cotton (WCU) def. Elizabeth Hedde (UE); 6-3, 7-6(4)
Shannon Zalinski (WCU) def. Erica Baas (UE); 4-6, 6-4 (10-4)
Katie VanEwyk (WCU) def. Jessica Schwartz (UE); 6-3, 6-2