Tennis Heads To WCC Championships
4/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 20, 2004
SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga University men's and women's tennis teams will wrap up the season this weekend as they begin West Coast Conference Tournament action Friday morning. The men's team is competing at Santa Clara University while the women's team plays at Saint Mary's College.
Sophomore Bryce Cooper and junior Dru Ernst lead the Gonzaga men's team (6-17), as Cooper is 12-8 at No. 1 and Ernst is 5-13 in the second position. The doubles team of Cooper and Ernst are 4-12 in No. 1 play. The men capped regular-season play with two consecutive wins including a 6-1 victory over Eastern and a narrow 4-3 defeat over Lewis-Clark.
Gonzaga finished tied for seventh place last season and placed as high as sixth overall in 1996.
The women are 11-11 overall this season and are led by seniors Jamie Buterbaugh and Angela Fry. Buterbaugh has posted a 13-8 dual match record while playing in the No. 1 spot for the Bulldogs, as Fry is currently 11-6 in the second spot. The duo has also combined for a 14-6 finish as GU's No. 1 doubles pair.
Along with Buterbaugh and Fry, seniors Connie Head, Leigh Orne and Katie Sanders will be making their last appearance for Gonzaga over the weekend. Head is 5-8 in the sixth spot, Orne is 8-13 overall and Sanders is 9-12 overall.
The Gonzaga women's team finished the regular season with three straight victories as they swept Eastern Washington, 7-0, and edged both University of Montana and Lewis-Clark State College, 4-3.
The Bulldogs tied for seventh place in the Women's WCC tournament last season with a program-best sixth place finish in 1996.
Matches for both the men's and women's WCC tournaments begin at 9 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.
