April 6, 2016 SAN DIEGO, Calif - The Toreros women's tennis team (6-7, 3-3 WCC) will host their Senior Day on Friday at the Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center against the University of San Francisco Dons (4-10, 2-3 WCC). The team will honor the seniors in-between the doubles and singles matches and treat the crowd to free tacos. The match starts at 1 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT: The women were idle last weekend after traveling to Gonzaga and Portland March 26 and 27 respectively. While in the Northwest the Toreros split the matches. First they lost a tightly contested 4-2 match to the Bulldogs before bouncing back on Saturday.
San Diego took the doubles point from the Pilots before falling behind 2-1 and 3-2 with the No. 5 and 6 matches remaining. Portland just needed one more point to seal the victory but freshman Sophia Chow and junior Colomba DiFilippo wouldn't budge.
Chow claimed her match with a 7-6, 6-4 win in the No. 5 spot leaving DiFilippo to clinch. The Chile native has been terrific in clinch situations this season and claimed another match for USD with a 7-5, 7-6 win.
SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: Friday's match will be the final home match for seniors Marta Stojanovic, Dana Oppinger, Shani Blecher, Mikayla Morkel-Brink and Marisa Marsh. Stojanonvic leads the class with 52 career wins at USD. Oppinger transferred to San Diego after starting her collegiate career at Marshall University. The Germany native has accumulated 22 singles victories while adding 17 doubles wins in her short time here.
SCOUTING THE DONS: San Francisco (4-10, 2-3 WCC) comes into the match after defeating Portland and Gonzaga last weekend in San Francisco. The Dons grabbed matching 4-2 victories over the WCC opponents. Their conference losses have come at the hands of Pacific (4-0), BYU (5-2) and Saint Mary's (4-0).
Senior No. 117 Andrea Ka leads the Dons with a 10-2 record this year in the No. 1 singles spot. She has teamed up with Thyra Taune to form USF's top doubles pair. The duo ranked No. 75 and is 8-2 this season.
Hilary Somers is in her 15th year with the Dons. In 2014 she led the team to a 15-7 record. Somers earned her degree at UC San Diego while she played tennis for the Tritons.
DIFILIPPO... THE ANCHOR: Junior Columba DiFilippo has been an incredibly solid performer for the Toreros this season just one year after missing her entire sophomore season with an injury. The Santiago, Chile native has earned a 9-3 record in dual matches this season and clinched the deciding point in all three conference wins this season.
MEET THE COACH: Sherri Stephens enters her 32nd year with the Toreros and has amassed 366 wins at USD. Stephens has led the Toreros to 11 NCAA Tournament Appearances and has coached 12 Division I All-Americans.
In 1999 Stephens guided National Singles Champion and National Player of the Year Zuzana Lesenarova.
