University of Houston
Conference USA Tournament
Terblanche Propels Tennis Into C-USA Semis
4/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
April 22, 2005
FORT WORTH, Texas - Down 3-2 against DePaul and facing elimination from the Conference USA Women's Tennis Tournament, the No. 74 Houston tennis team battled back to claim the match at 4-3 with junior Yolandi Terblanche's straight-set victory at the No. 4 spot.
The win propels the Cougars (17-8, 2-1) into the C-USA semifinals for the second consecutive season where they will face No. 17 TCU who defeated ECU 5-0 in its quarterfinal match.
Saturday's semifinal match is a rematch of sorts for the two teams as they both squared off earlier in the regular season and TCU took a 5-2 decision from the Cougars in that meeting.
"We didn't play at our best when we played them last time," said Houston head coach John Severance. "Right now our girls are really excited after getting this tight win against a good DePaul team. We are going to play tomorrow's match hard because we have nothing to lose and everything to gain."
At this point, the worst the Cougars can finish in the C-USA standings is fourth, the same seeding they received for the tournament as the fourth highest nationally ranked team in the conference.
In the match, the Cougars dropped the doubles point as the Blue Demons claimed both the No. 1 and 2 spots to grab a 1-0 lead, but senior Diana Martin and junior Kami Miller claimed an 8-2 victory to prevent a doubles sweep.
DePaul managed to hold off the Cougars through the first three positions, winning at the No. 2 and 3 spots, while the Cougars' senior Biljana Dimovska took a 6-0, 6-2 at No. 1 and Miller won 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5 to leave the score at 3-2 and DePaul needing just one more victory to end the match.
At No. 6, freshman Tiffany McLoughlin came through in what was the biggest match of her career at Houston to date. McLoughlin claimed the first set easily at 6-2, but had to fight hard to win the second set 7-6.
Tied at 3-3, the Cougars were relying on Terblanche's play to advance them to the semifinals, and the junior came through with a 7-5, 6-1 win at No. 4 to secure the Cougars' 4-3 comeback win.
Houston and TCU square off with a trip to the championship match on the line at 3 p.m. with Live Stats available for the match.
