NASHVILLE, TN - Alabama A&M's men's and women's tennis teams opened their 2010 campaign over the weekend at Lipscomb, and despite each team falling to the Bisons, head coach Thomas Colvin saw some bright spots for this early in the season. The Bulldogs dropped the women's match, 6-1 and the men's 7-0 Saturday evening.

Women's Match: Lipscomb 6, Alabama A&M 1  /  Box Score
Te’Isha Mixon and Shannon Warner at #1 doubles, played a strong match but errors down the stretch dropped them in a 9-7 decision.  The Bisons clinched the doubles point by closing out Denise Cherry and Brittany Jelks at #2 doubles, 8-1.

“I thought that our #1 doubles was able to impose their will in that match,” Colvin said.  “We just left the door open at the end and couldn’t finish.”

Freshman Denise Cherry dropped her first set 6-4, but built up momentum towards the end of that set and rallied back for a strong 6-1, 6-2 win in the final two sets.

“Denise made some adjustments in the first set and started to make a push.  She played really solid in closing out that match.”

Her sister, Jasmine Cherry, came within a few close misses of giving the A&M its second win of the night.  Jasmine lost the first set 6-3 before settling down and taking the second set 6-4 and forcing a tie-break.  Trialing early on in the tie-break, Cherry battled, but sufferred a 10-6 loss.

“Jasmine has been playing well the past week and I expected her to do well.  She will make many more of those shots than she will miss this season.”

Men's Match: Lipscomb 7, Alabama A&M 0  /  Box Score
The Bisons took an early lead by capturing the doubles point, winning 8-4 at #1 and 8-2 at #2 doubles.  

From there, the Bulldogs' best match of the night came from freshman Desta Sandy at #1 singles.  Sandy got an early lead with some aggressive play and took the opening set 6-2.  A stumble in the 2nd set evened the match at one set a piece before LU’s Daniel  Haugsteter closed the match with a 6-4 win in the 3rd.

“We played some good points tonight,” Colvin said.  “We just didn’t put enough of those points together.”