April 10, 2007

Results

Coming off of last week's road wins at Youngstown State and St. Bonaventure, the Duquesne women's tennis team traveled on April 4 to take on West Virginia. Coming into Wednesday's match the all-time series between Duquesne and West Virginia, which began in 1978, stood at 23-0, in favor of West Virginia.

The Dukes 4-3 victory marked the first team win over West Virginia in school history. Helping to capture Duquesne's victory was junior Johanna Bezjak (Salisbury, MD/James M. Bennett). Stemming from her performance this week, Bezjak was selected as the Atlantic 10 Player of the Week. At no.1 singles, Bezjak handled West Virginia's Natalia Prinz 6-2, 6-3 and moved on with doubles partner, freshman Rachel McGowan (Canfield, OH/Canfield), to a victory at no.2 doubles. Together the pair is 12-1 and has won seven straight matches. McGowan was also successful in no.4 singles, beating her West Virginia opponent 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

Senior Jacqueline Hughes (McKeesport, PA/McKeesport) also had a strong performance. Hughes defeated West Virginia's Stacey Percival at no.2 singles, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Hughes maintains the team's best singles record at 12-3 overall. At no.1 doubles Hughes and sophomore partner, Rebecca Poole (Swindon, Wiltshire, UK/New College (Swindon)), were victorious in a close 9-8 match.

The Dukes (10-5) will round out the rest of their regular season schedule with two home matches before the Atlantic 10 Championships on April 20-22. They will face University of Pittsburgh at home on Wednesday, April 11, at 1:00pm and on Saturday, April 14, the Dukes will host George Washington University at 3:00 pm.