March 25, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford women's tennis team begins its two-week road swing this week, March 26-29, at the Blue-Gray Jamboree hosted by Auburn-Montgomery. The three-day event is tournament-style play with eight women's teams participating.

The Bulldogs come off a good weekend as they defeated Mercer, 6-1, on Saturday, March 22. The win should give the Samford women the momentum they need to go into this weekend as they bounced back from loss to Houston.

The event was formerly known as the Small College Blue-Gray Tournament but has been changed this year to the current name as two NCAA Division I programs - Samford and UTEP - are included in the field.

Some of the top women's programs in NCAA Division II are participating in this event as well. Armstrong Atlantic is currently second while Valdosta State is ranked fourth. Both programs have won national championships in recent years. Columbus State is ranked 12th in the latest rankings and West Florida is 18th. UC-San Diego is ranked 25th, while the defending NCAA Division III champion, Emory, is currently ranked fourth. Host team AUM, is currently ranked first and comes off four consecutive NAIA championships.

This will be the first meeting for Samford and AUM this year as the Feb. 17 meeting slated between the two teams was postponed due to inclement weather.

Match play gets underway at 10 a.m. Wednesday, at the AUM Tennis Complex. Thursday's matches will be played at Lagoon Park, beginning at 9 a.m., while play continues on Thursday and Friday, followed by the finals and consolation rounds on Saturday.

The Samford women will start play off Thursday at 5:30 p.m., in a match against Armstrong Atlantic. Other opponents will be determined throughout the weekend. A full recap and results will be available on www.samfordsports.com at the end of each day of play.