Women's Tennis | 10/20/2012 8:21:00 AM

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's tennis team had no trouble punching its ticket to the semifinals of the West Virginia Conference championship tournament here Friday, blasting Seton Hill, 5-0, in a quarterfinal match at the Schoenbaum Tennis Center.
    The short-handed Griffins were no match for Coach Heather Gallagher's No. 2-seeded Hilltoppers (12-1), who will take on No. 3-seed Charleston (9-3) in Saturday's semifinal round. The Golden Eagles breezed past Fairmont State, 5-0, in their Friday quarterfinal.
    West Liberty got off to a flying start with wins in the three doubles matches on Friday.
    The No. 1 doubles tandem of Lauren Howard and Raissa Wischi rolled to an 8-1 win and the No. 2 doubles pairing of Alex Barr and Zineb Houssaini followed that up with an 8-2 nod.
    The short-handed Seton Hill squad had only five players, giving West Liberty walkover forfeits at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles, so the Hilltoppers needed only one singles win to close out the match.
    West Liberty was leading all five singles matches when Houssaini brought a halt to the proceedings with a 6-0 6-0 blitz at No. 5 singles.
    Saturday's semifinal match against Charleston is slated for a 1 p.m. start. The Hilltoppers defeated the Golden Eagles, 6-3, in a regular season meeting on Oct. 9.
    The West Liberty-Charleston winner advances to Sunday's championship match against the survivor of Saturday's other semifinal between No. 4 seed Davis & Elkins and unbeaten regular-season champion West Virginia State (13-0).