Jan. 31, 2004

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Having clinched the doubles point through the upset of Texas A&M's No. 22-ranked doubles duo and numerous singles matches being pushed to three sets, a Maryland upset of the No. 25 Aggies was nearly in reach. Chances slipped away for the No. 75 Terps, who were edged 4-3 today at Kentucky's indoor courts at the Hilary J. Boone Varsity Tennis Complex.

The Aggies are coming off a close 4-3 loss to No. 15 Kentucky on Friday, Jan. 30.

The Terps struck first, clinching the doubles point, to go up 1-0 on the No. 25 Aggies.

Senior Chloe Chavardes (St. Noblabreteche, France) and sophomore Jennifer Dent (Safety Harbor, Fla.) fell to A&M's Roberta Spencer and Lauren Walker, 3-8. Maryland responded, winning the final two doubles matches to take the lead.

Sophomore Ramona But (Timisoara, Romania) teamed up with the newest member of the women's tennis team, Neda Mihneva, in doubles. Mihneva transferred to Maryland this semester and has already made waves in her first competition as a Terrapin. But and Mihneva defeated Anna Lubinsky and Nicki Mechem, 8-3.

With the doubles tally knotted at 1-1, it was left up to senior Emily Marker (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and freshman Marianne Baker (Glenelg, Md.) to put the Terps in front of the Aggies. Baker and Marker, who went 5-1 in the fall, pulled off a huge upset knocking off the No. 22-ranked duo of Jessica Roland and Helga Vieira. With the narrow, 8-6 win, the Terps went up 1-0 and headed into singles action.

In singles action, the Terps faced stiff competition in the Aggie lineup.

Sophomore Andreea Fusea (Bucharest, Romania), playing in the No. 4 spot for the Terps, faced off against Nicki Mechem. Fusea fought for the upper hand in the match but fell short, loosing the first set 6-7. Mechem dominated the rest of the match, shutting out Fusea 6-0 in the second.

Both Marker, But and Baker playing in the Nos. 1-3 spots respectively, battled the Aggies, pushing all their matches to three sets.

Baker, who streaked to six straight singles wins this fall, was edged in the first set of her match up with A&M's Roberta Spencer, 7-6. Baker pushed the set to a decisive third with her 6-4 win in the second. She then put Maryland up 2-1, as she rolled through Spencer 6-1.

Marker, who recently received her highest career ITA ranking of 44, faced off against No. 26 Jessica Roland. Marker looked sharp in the first set, winning 6-3. However Roland countered Marker's strike, taking the second set 6-3. Roland proved too much for Marker, taking the third set and the match with her 6-4 win. With the singles win, the Terps and the Aggies were tied at two.

But went up against the Aggies' Helga Vieira in the No. 2 singles spot. But took the first set 7-5. However the match followed the three set trend when Vieira took the second, 6-4. The Aggies gained the lead for the first time when Vieira took the third set from But, 7-5.

Dent smothered A&M's Lauren Walker, 6-1 in the first set. Walker fought back and almost pushed the match to three sets. Dent was able to claim the win, taking the second 7-5. Her singles win evened the score between the Terps and Aggies, leaving the fate of the match to be decided by Chavardes.

Chavardes, the Terps other co-captain, was down early loosing the first set 3-6. Chavardes couldn't recover and lost the second set, 1-6.

The Terps (0-1) will face host No. 15 Kentucky tomorrow, Sun. Feb. 1 at 2:00 p.m.

Live scoring from each of the weekend's matches will be available from Kentucky's women's tennis schedule page at www.ukathletics.com.

No. 25 Texas A&M def. No. 75 Maryland, 4-3

Doubles
1. Baker/Marker, UM, def. (#22) Roland/Vieira, A&M, 8-6
2. Spencer/Walker, A&M, def. Chavardes/Dent, UM, 8-3
3. But/Neda Mihneva, UM, def. Lubinsky/Mechem, A&M, 8-3

Singles
1. (#26) Jessica Roland, A&M, def. (#44) Emily Marker, UM, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
2. Helga Vieira, A&M, def. (#58) Ramona But, UM, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5
3. Marianne Baker, UM, def. Roberta Spencer, A&M, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1
4. Jennifer Dent, UM, def. Lauren Walker, A&M, 6-1, 7-5
5. Nicki Mechem, A&M, def. Andreea Fusea, UM, 7-6, 6-0
6. Anna Lubinsky, A&M, def. Chloe Chavardes, UM, 6-3, 6-1

Order of finish (D2, D3, D1, S4, S3, S1, S4, S5, S6*) *Clinched match