Tennis Closes Regular Season at #37 DePaul, Marquette
4/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. -- The Seton Hall tennis team will wrap up the regular season this weekend, traveling to take on conference foes #37 DePaul and Marquette in the final tune-ups for next week's BIG EAST Tournament in Indianapolis.
The Pirates (7-9, 2-3 BIG EAST) have won four of their last six matches, including league victories over Villanova and Providence, and will be playing two opponents in as many days for the fifth time this spring.
The Hall split with Longwood (W, 5-2) and Navy (L, 4-3) on consecutive days in February before sweeping NJIT (6-1) and Binghamton (4-3) to close the month. The Pirates also out-scored their opponents, 17-to-10, during a run of three matches in three days on a spring break trip to San Diego, Calif.
The packed slate comes after a week away from competition as SHU last appeared on April 11, falling to St. John's in the team's final home match of the season. The loss followed a Seton Hall shutout of Monmouth nine days prior as The Hall has enjoyed periods of rest as the team looks to get back to full strength ahead of the conference tournament.
To this point in the season, juniors Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) and Isabell Klingert (Oberbalbach, Germany) have made their case for All-Conference honors by combining to post seven wins over BIG EAST opponents in 10 collective appearances while freshman Katie Kim (Honolulu, Hawaii) has also registered multiple wins against conference foes.
Newcomer Luize Strike (Riga, Latvia) has also won a pair of matches since returning from an extended absence against Xavier on March 28, picking up her first career BIG EAST dual match win in three sets over Providence's Alana Prinos.
The Blue Demons (16-4, 3-0 BIG EAST) enter the weekend having won eight of their last nine and three of their four losses have come to nationally ranked opponents. The reigning conference champions, DePaul has out-scored Providence, Butler and Xavier by a total of 20-to-1 in three previous appearances against BIG EAST opponents.
The Pirates and Golden Eagles have not met since 2011 when Marquette (10-9, 1-1 BIG EAST) was ranked among the top-70 squads in the nation. MU has posted a perfect 7-0 record at home this spring, surrendering one point or less in all seven matches.
Marquette and DePaul will meet in Milwaukee on Friday before both teams are slated to take on the Pirates in their respective regular season finales. A strong performance this weekend could help The Hall improve its seed line as head coach Greg Wyzykowski's group looks to earn an automatic berth into the quarterfinal round for the second consecutive season.
Start-time against DePaul is scheduled for 3:00 PM ET and the Pirates will take on Marquette at 10:00 AM ET on Sunday.
