April 2, 2006
The heat of Houston, Tex., turned out to be not as bad as expected, but 80+ degree temps were a big change. For the most part, the Lady Bulldogs handled the heat of the weather and the heat of the teams in the West Division of the SWAC.
"I thought we did a pretty good job of handling things last week," commented coach Thomas Colvin. "Playing against the west, there really wasn't a match where you could ease up. You had to come to play every match every day."
The Lady Bulldogs seemed to do that, winning 3 of the 5 matches that they played in the 3-day round-robin. The only 2 losses came at the hands of Southern University and Texas Southern University, the #1 and #2 seeds in the west.
"It would have been great to go there and to win all 5 matches," Colvin said, "but we didn't do that. I'm not terribly disappointed in getting 3. I think we got a chance to see how we measure up and the fact that we go in as the #1 seed in the east, we will have some time to work on a few things."
On day 1, the Lady Bulldogs got a 4-3 win over Prairie View and lost a 3-4 match to Texas Southern. In the #2 doubles match against Prairie View, sophomore Shaniek Pinder suffered a badly sprained ankle that hampered her throughout the week.
"Shaniek's injury stayed on all of our minds. After a medical break, she came back to finish the doubles match to clinch the doubles point, but couldn't play singles."
Day 2 saw the Lady Bulldogs get a 7-0 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff before falling to Southern University, 1-6. The lone win came at #2 singles where injured Shaniek Pinder decided not to default her match. She re-injured the ankle in the 3rd set, but fought through to get a win.
"Southern's a team with quite a bit of depth," Colvin said. "They played better than we did and got the win. I don't know if I can say enough about Shaniek's effort. I wanted to pull her off, but she wanted that win."
On the final day, the Lady Bulldogs met the Lady Tigers of Grambling and were able to get a 4-3 win.
Notable finishes include both Charlene Tsangamwe and Batsi Bvunzawabaya going 4-1 for the week. The wins move Tsangamwe to an 8-1 mark in the SWAC. Both #1 and #2 doubles teams are now 8-1 in the SWAC.
"Overall, I think we did what we needed to do. I'm confident about our abilities and how we'll show up in the championships. It's just a matter of going out and playing this game."
The Lady Bulldogs will finish the season with 4 matches at home.
