Oct. 22, 2009

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University women's tennis team will compete in its final tournament of the 2009 fall season this weekend at the 2009 Wilson/ITA Southern Regional Championships. The four-day regional competition will be held Oct. 23-26, at the Yarbrough Tennis Center on the campus of Auburn University.

The talent-laden field of the four-day competition will consist of 80 players from 14 teams. The schools competing in the 2009 ITA Southern Regional Championships are Samford, Alabama, Auburn, Centenary, Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU, Mississippi State, UNO, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Ole Miss, Troy, Tulane, and UAB.

In August, the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) announced a regional realignment. Beginning with this year, the regions will expand from eight to 12. In the previous alignment, Samford was a part of the Southeast Region, which included most of the Southeast and all of Florida. It was considered by many to be the toughest region in the country. Now, Samford is a member of the Southern Region, which includes Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.

Samford's 2009-10 roster is comprised of seven returning players in senior Stephanie Parkison, juniors Andrie Meiring and Taylor Morgan, as well as up-and-coming sophomores Jessica Diamond, Beth Erwin, Rebecca Kirven and Lindsey Mallory.

This year, Samford will also boast the services of highly-touted true freshmen Kristin Lewis and Emily Mallory, as well as sophomore Madelie Janse Van Rensburg, a talented transfer from Oregon.

In their last tournament of the fall season, the University of North Florida Fall Invite, the Bulldogs' doubles combination of Parkison and Janse Van Rensburg teamed up to win the championship title of the highly-touted event.

In the title match, the Bulldogs' third-seeded duo breezed past Central Florida's combination of Jenna Doerfler and Alexis Rodriguez, 8-4. Samford's Janse Van Rensburg and Parkison finished the weekend with an unblemished 4-0 record. The Bulldogs' victories included a dominant 8-2 triumph against Troy's second-seeded doubles squad comprised of Rosaura Ramirez Vega and Stephanie Vieira in the semifinal round of the competition.

This weekend's 2009 Wilson/ITA Southern Regional Championship will begin Friday and conclude Tuesday. The four-day competition will be held at Auburn's Yarbrough Tennis Center.