Cumberland breaks into rankings

Cumberland's men broke into the NAIA tennis rankings at No. 15 while the women moved up from No. 29 at the end of last season to No. 23 to start 2007.
"Our guys and gals have really started off well this spring with some good wins early and a great outlook on working together to accomplish our goals," Coach Bill Riddle said.
The men are coming off a 7-2 upset of Sewanee on Monday.
The Bulldogs started with a 3-0 doubles sweep to earn that point before Edgar Galea won at No. 3 singles. The deciding fifth point came from Russian transfer Roman Shkurupiy at No. 1. Freshman Mike Basler closed the deal at No. 5 singles with a third-set tiebreaker.
"Our guys keep finding ways to work together and get stronger each match," CU assistant coach Charles Bartlett said.
The Lady Bulldogs are coming off a 4-3 loss to Western Kentucky last weekend.
CU surprised the Lady Hilltoppers early by taking the doubles point with wins from Paula Guzman and Beatriz Mompo at No. 1 and Sarah Garman and Lebanon's Emily Jacobs at No. 2.
Western evened the match at 3-3 by winning at Nos. 1, 2 and 5 singles after Garman and Jacobs won at Nos. 3 and 4.
It came down to Mt. Juliet's Danielle Madson at No. 6. She fell short in a 7-5 tiebreaker.
"This was actually a good loss to a D-I team and our ladies really played well and fought hard," CU assistant coach Will Edmonds said.
Cumberland's men are 4-1 for the season and the women are 3-1. Both teams will get a week off before heading into their outdoor opener Feb. 24 when Alabama-Huntsville visits CU. First serve will be at noon.