DENTON, Texas (April 20, 2017) – The FIU women's tennis team (19-1) will face the Charlotte 49ers (11-9) in the quarterfinals of this year's Conference USA Women's Tennis Championship on Friday, April 21.
First serve is set for 11:00 a.m. ET from the Waranch Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of North Texas. It will mark the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Having won 17-straight matches, FIU enters this year's championship as the No. 2 seed, riding the second-longest winning streak in school history, just one win shy of the school record set in 2001 (18-straight). With 13 shutouts on the year, FIU finished the 2017 regular season with a 78-13 record in dual singles play and a 60-16 mark in doubles action.
Three Panthers have won 20-or-more matches. Sophomore
Maryna Veksler and freshman
Ulyana Grib have each totaled 22 wins this season. Veksler has registered an overall record of 22-5 (15-2 in dual matches), while Grib has notched a mark of 22-4 (16-2 in dual matches). Sophomore
Andrea Lazaro, ranked No. 44 in the latest Oracle/ITA Women's Tennis Singles Rankings, enters this week's action with an overall record of 20-4. The native of Barcelona, Spain, has recorded a 14-1 mark at the No. 1 position this spring.
FIU comes into this week's tournament with a 4-3 record all-time in the league championships. Last season, FIU advanced to the C-USA Championship match, falling to Rice, 4-1.
Charlotte, the No. 7 seed, advanced to the quarterfinals following a 4-3 win over Louisiana Tech on Thursday. Down 3-2, the 49ers battled back to claim their first C-USA Championship victory since 2015.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Facebook (
Facebook.com/FIUWTennis) for all the latest FIU women's tennis news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (
Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
About FIU:
Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute. FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
