TOWSON, Md. - Andrea Samlin has already notched some big victories this season for the Towson tennis team, including a huge win in last week's triumph over UMBC (more on that later).

But you get the sense that Samlin's biggest win of this season was actually scored before the campaign even started.

That's because Samlin, a senior from Merrick, N.Y., had to do some fancy talking to be allowed to play this year. Not because of some debilitating injury, but because of the rigor of her course work.

Samlin, you see, is a special education major and wants to open a school for children with special needs someday.

She is student-teaching a group of six children at Ridgely Middle School in Lutherville this year, and she goes to the Lutherville school each day.

Teaching is such demanding work that professors and advisors counsel student-teachers not to get a side job so that you can concentrate on the task at hand.

But Samlin, who has been playing tennis since she was two years old, wasn't quite ready to put her racket down.

“It's a love/hate sport,” said Samlin. “I couldn't imagine not playing tennis. It never crossed my mind.”

She and her coach, Doug Neagle had to fight the powers that be to try to teach and play simultaneously.

For Samlin, tennis and teaching are inseparable. She came back from her semester break three weeks early to add in the extra days to the classroom that she would miss from playing tennis.

“Athletics has helped me become the teacher that I am,” said Samlin. “There are a lot of things that tennis has taught me that have helped me to succeed in the classroom.”

That's not to say that Samlin, whose mother Abby played tennis at SUNY-Brockport, has been a slouch on the courts this year. She leads the Tigers with 10 singles wins this season, including a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Madlena Kuracz of UMBC last Friday.

That win helped cap a dramatic 4-3 team victory over UMBC for local bragging rights. The Retrievers have proven to be a particularly tough draw in recent seasons for the Tigers, and Neagle called the victory “a great win in Tiger tennis history.”

“We've played them year after year and they've beaten us year after year,” said Samlin of UMBC. “I don't think anyone thought we actually were going to win. We wanted to win, but no one thought we were going to win.

“Winning just gave us more confidence and it's a big win for our team. We've never beaten a team as good as UMBC. Everyone came together. We couldn't have done it without every single person on the team.”

The Tigers, who will play a mini-southeastern swing with matches at Florida Atlantic Wednesday and Nova Southeastern on Thursday, are 7-3 and have won five of their last six.

The reason, Samlin, thinks is simple. The players have bonded with each other, cheering each other on when they're not playing. In turn, that has helped each other work out the kinks in their respective games.

The emotional investment has paid off handsomely, and it's one of the reasons Samlin is grateful to be playing this year - even with the extra workload.

“I'm happy,” said Samlin. “I don't think I could ever have dropped tennis, but I'm happy I didn't have to.”