April 16, 2008

The George Mason Women's tennis team will travel to Newport News, Va. this weekend to compete in the CAA Championships. The Patriots hold the ninth seed heading into the championships and will face off against the eighth seeded Dukes from James Madison in the first round on Thursday afternoon. Other first rounds matches include sixth seeded UNCW against 11th seeded Drexel and seventh seeded Hofstra doing battle with 10th seeded Towson.

Mason finished the season on a 6-2 run after a 1-7 start in the spring. Four freshmen have headlined Mason's top six most of the season, complemented by two juniors and one senior. Lindsay Gray, Stacey Berlinger, Sarah Dieffenbach and Aryn Christman have all shown great improvement throughout their first season as Patriots.

Gray, Mason's No.1 player most of the season, heads into the CAA Championships with a 10-15 overall record, going .500 at 8-8 in spring dual matches. Berlinger, the Patriots No. 2 competitor for the majority of the season, holds a 9-18 record going into Thursday's match with James Madison. Dieffenbach, the Lady Netters No. 3 player, ended her first season with a 7-16 record. The final freshman seeing significant playing time, Aryn Christman, held down the No. 5 position most of the season and finished with the teams best personal overall record at 15-13. Senior Julia Moscato has held down the No. 4 spot for the majority of the season. She finished with an overall record on 10-16, but Moscato went 9-8 when competing in the No. 4 position. Two juniors have shared time at the No. 6 spot. Meredith Cutchin went 5-6 overall and Alicia Van Zandt played to a 2-6 record this season.

There were consistently two doubles that competed regularly this season for the Patriots. Gray and Berlinger usually played the No. 1 doubles position, while Moscato and Van Zandt held down the No. 2 position. A combination of five other teams competed in the third doubles position, but the team of Alex LaCoste and Cutchin were 4-0 in the No. 3 spot.

William and Mary is the reigning conference champion and hold a national ranking of 22. They will also be the second round opponent of the Mason and James Madison match. Virginia Commonwealth is also ranked nationally at 36th. The tournament will end on Sunday as the championship match begins at 1 p.m.