TOWSON, Md. – The Towson women's tennis team heads back on the road. This weekend, Jamie Peterson's team will be in the Carolinas for Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) matches versus Elon and the College of Charleston. Before heading home, the Tigers will face South Carolina State.
 
Towson (2-5) is playing 10 of its first 11 matches away from home then 10 of the final 13 matches will be at the Tiger Tennis Complex, including nine during a 19-day stretch between March 23-April 11.
 
Last weekend, Towson earned a split in Williamsburg - losing to William & Mary and defeating Norfolk State. Sarah Pospischill clinched the Norfolk win with a gutty three-set victory and has now won four of her last five matches. The sophomore leads the team singles victories.
 
The doubles team of Amelia Lawson and Lauryn Jacobs improved to 3-2. Peterson moved the duo up from the No. 3 spot in the lineup to No. 2.   
 
In addition to the Norfolk victory, Towson shutout Delaware State on Feb. 20. The Tigers won 15 of 16 sets during the match. Three of Towson's losses have been at the hands of teams currently ranked in the top ten in the East Region – Liberty, James Madison and Navy. One of the others was to William & Mary, a team that has won the CAA championship 26 times over the last 34 years.
 
This week, Peterson announced several changes to the 2021 schedule:

• The March 5 postponed match at St. Joseph's will now be played in Philadelphia on April 13.
• The March 26 match versus Hofstra will be played at the Tiger Tennis Complex, not Coppermine Racquet & Fitness.
• The April 6 opponent switched from Georgetown to Morgan State.
• A match versus Mary Washington was added on April 11, as part of Alumni Weekend.

For the complete schedule, please visit: https://towsontigers.com/sports/womens-tennis/schedule.
 
SCOUTING ELON (Friday, March 12)
Elon is 8-3 this season, including a 7-0 victor over Radford, a squad who beat Towson 4-3 last month. Junior Victoria Saldh is 7-2 in singles and 6-3 in doubles. She is expected to face Haliou at No. 1 singles. The Phoenix also feature Lizette Reding (7-2 in singles) and Shauna Galvin (6-2 in singles).
 
SCOUTING THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (Sunday, March 14)
The College of Charleston is currently 3-6 and will play three matches before facing Towson. The Cougars own a victory over South Carolina State. The No. 3 doubles team of Elizabeth Nowak and Slade Coetzee is undefeated, including a win over Clemson.
 
SCOUTING SOUTH CAROLINA STATE (Monday, March 15)
South Carolina State has started the 2021 campaign with a 0-3 record, including losses to the College of Charleston and UNCW.  The Bulldogs will face Campbell prior to Monday's match, which will be played in Charleston.
 
STEPPING UP
Themis Haliou has emerged as Towson's top singles player this season. The junior is 3-3 with victories versus Liberty, Delaware State and Radford. She also plays No. 1 doubles with Alexa Martinez.
 
HEY, ALEXA
Alexa Martinez has the most experience on the Towson roster. The senior from the John Carroll School in Harford County played in her 50^th career singles match against William & Mary (she is now at 51) and has made 44 career doubles appearances for the Tigers. As a sophomore in 2018-19, she played both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles.
 
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.
 
STUDENT-ATHLETES
During the fall semester, the Towson tennis team was one of five to finish with a grade point average of 3.5 or better. The 11-person squad averaged 3.635, with Jessica Assenmacher, Alexa Martinez and Lea Kosanovic earning perfect 4.0's. Seven student-athletes made the Dean's List. The cumulative GPA for the Towson tennis team is 3.527.
 
DID YOU KNOW?
Head coach Jamie Peterson was two-time team captain on the Towson men's tennis team from 1991-95 and finished his career with a 64-35 record, the fourth-most wins and fourth-best winning percentage in program history. Peterson helped lead the Tigers to back-to-back appearances in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championship in 1993 and 1994.
 
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 HelperHelper competition. Towson ranked #1 nationally for community service and won the 2018 National Championship for Community Service through the HelperHelper NCAA Team Works Competition.  Towson also won the 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award from Susan G. Komen of Maryland.