GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Furman sophomores Lillie Murphy and Elle Warren will represent the Southern Conference beginning Thursday at the ITA Conference Masters Championship at the Rome Tennis Center in Rome, Ga. Each NCAA automatic qualifier-eligible, Division I conference designates one singles player and one doubles team from each gender to participate in the event.
Murphy will compete in singles at the event. In the opening round, she will take on Sarah Hartel of Buffalo at 11 a.m.
Murphy and Warren will team up to represent the league in doubles. The Paladin duo will begin competition at 5 p.m. and will face Charlotte Roesch and Kim Buehbauer of Texas State-San Marcos in the round of 32. Last season, the Paladin duo placed third at the tournament to advance to the NCAA Doubles Championship.
The tournament will feature a first-match loser's consolation, which will be played to completion. All singles matches will be two out of three full sets, while doubles matches will be two out of three sets with a match tiebreak.
Draws, live streaming links, and live scoring links for the Masters Championship singles and doubles are available at https://wearecollegetennis.com/championships/ita-conference-masters-championships/.
From the ITA Masters Championship, four singles players will qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship (semifinalists) and three doubles teams will qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championship (champion, finalist, third place).
In the spring of 2026, Murphy became just the third SoCon women's tennis athlete to win both player of the year and freshman of the year in the same season. She was named to the All-SoCon first team for both singles and doubles and was honored as a member of the SoCon All-Freshman team after tallying a 16-4 overall singles record and a perfect 7-0 mark in league matches. This fall, she boasts a 6-2 singles record with Power 4 wins over Maryland, Georgia Tech, N.C. State, and North Carolina.
Murphy and Warren went 13-1 at flight one doubles in spring dual matches last year, posting a .929 winning percentage, the fourth best in Furman history. So far this fall, the Paladin duo is 9-2 with six Power 4 victories after advancing to the semifinals of the ITA Carolinas Regional Championship last week.
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