TOWSON, Md. – For the second time this season, the Towson women's tennis team will head to Virginia to play two matches. Before returning home, the Tigers will also take on the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Jamie Peterson's squad will play Radford (Friday afternoon), face Longwood (Saturday afternoon) and Navy (Sunday afternoon).
 
Towson (1-2) earned its first victory of the 2021 season by defeating Delaware State on Saturday night, 7-0, at Coppermine Racquet & Fitness in Pikesville. The Tigers won 15 of 16 sets during the match. Themis Haliou improved to 2-1 at No. 1 singles with a straight set victory. 
 
SCOUTING RADFORD
Radford opened the 2021 season Wednesday by beating Bluefield State College. Last season, the Highlanders finished 9-3. This is the first meeting between the programs.
 
SCOUTING LONGWOOD
Longwood has started the 2021 campaign with a pair of shutout losses to Liberty. In 2019-20, the Lancers went 7-3, dropping a 4-3 decision to Radford. Longwood leads the all-time series against Towson, 3-1. The Tigers won the last meeting in 2017.
 
SCOUTING NAVY
Navy opened the 2021 season with a 5-2 victory over George Washington last weekend. The Midshipmen went 17-4 last year, including victories over Colonial Athletic Association rivals Delaware and Drexel. Navy is 9-3 lifetime versus the Tigers, winning the last nine matchups. In 2019, Alexa Martinez secured a victory at No. 1 singles for Towson.
 
STEPPING UP
Themis Haliou has emerged as Towson's top singles player. During the opening weekend of the season, the junior went 1-1 versus the No. 1 players from James Madison and Liberty, two of the better teams the Atlantic region. She lost to JMU's Daria Afanasyeva in three sets then beat previously undefeated Alexandra Almborg of Liberty 6-3, 6-4.  Last weekend, she defeated Delaware State's Lolita Kozina (6-3, 6-1) and teamed with Alexa Martinez to win the No. 1 doubles match, 6-1.
 
HEY, ALEXA
Alexa Martinez has the most experience on the Towson roster. The senior from the John Carroll School in Harford County has now played 47 career singles and 40 career doubles matches for the Tigers. As a sophomore in 2018-19, she played both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles for the Tigers.
 
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
Over half of the 2021 roster was born outside of the United States. Amelia and Antonia Lawson hail from Wellington, New Zealand, nearly 8,800 miles away from Towson. Jessica Assenmacher is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa, which is 8,085 miles from campus. Themis Haliou is from Strovolos, Cyrus, a town 5,625 miles from Towson. Sarah Pospischill was born and raised in Reisenburg, Austria, which is almost 4,400 miles away. Lea Kosanovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia (4,675 miles from Towson), but her family moved to the United States when she was five years old and she attended Walter Johnson High School in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.
 
TIGERS IN THE COMMUNITY    
The Towson University athletics department deems community service as one of its highest priorities to give back to the Greater Baltimore area. Towson was on track to have its 8th consecutive year of over 10,000 hours of community service in 2019-20 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all activity.  Towson finished with 7,527 hours last year, good for third in the NCAA Teamworks Helper Helper competition. Towson ranked #1 nationally for community service and won the 2018 National Championship for Community Service through the Helper Helper NCAA Team Works Competition.  Towson also won the 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award from Susan G. Komen of Maryland.