NEW ORLEANS -- East Carolina's women's tennis team tied a school record by notching its 16th win and the Lady Pirates finished off a strong showing in the Conference USA Tournament by defeating DePaul, 6-1, on Tuesday morning. ECU went 3-1 in the tournament to finish in a tie for fifth place.

The Lady Pirates finish with a 16-8 overall record, which equals the school record for most wins in a season, originally set by the 1995 team.

ECU entered the tournament seeded No. 9, but recorded wins over No. 8 seed UAB on Saturday and No. 11 Cincinnati on Monday. The Lady Pirates' only loss came to top-seeded Tulane on Sunday.

In Tuesday morning's match, ECU was the beneficiary of DePaul's travel plans, which forced the Blue Demons to default all six of the singles matches.

The Blue Demons (18-10), the No. 7 seed, captured the doubles point to open the match. The DePaul tandem of Brenda Leung and Marina Parshkevova scored an 8-5 win over the ECU combination of Lyndall Jordan and Raluca Baicu. DePaul also collected a win at No. 3 double, when the team of Karen Falduto and Rachel Dybas defeated Emily Kohl and Cristina Meilicke, 9-8.

ECU's doubles win came at flight two, where Kirstin Buchanan and Paulina Sierpinski teamed for an 8-5 win over DePaul's Natalie Matko and Stephanie Matko.

The fifth-place finish was ECU's best in a conference tournament since placing fifth in the 1997 CAA Tournament. Last season, the Lady Pirates tied for seventh in their first year in C-USA.

(9) East Carolina 6, (7) DePaul 1
Conference USA Tournament - Tuesday, April 15, 2003 - New Orleans, La.

Doubles
1) Parshkevova/Leung (DePaul) def. Baicu/Jordan (East Carolina), 8-5
2) Buchanan/Sierpinski (East Carolina) def. N. Matko/S. Matko (DePaul), 8-5
3) Falduto/Dybas (DePaul) def. Kohl/Meilicke (East Carolina) 9-8

Singles
1) Kirstin Buchanan (East Carolina) def. Szilvia Kelemen (DePaul), default
2) Lyndall Jordan (East Carolina) def. Brenda Leung (DePaul), default
3) Raluca Baicu (East Carolina) def. Karen Falduto (DePaul), default
4) Paulina Sierpinski (East Carolina) def. Rachel Dybas (DePaul), default
5) Emily Kohl (East Carolina) def. Stephanie Matko (DePaul), default
6) Cristina Meilicke (East Carolina) def. Megan Stewart (DePaul), default