Second Seeded Miami Advances the 2004 BIG EAST Championship Match
April 30, 2004
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The 26th-ranked, and No. 2 seeded University of Miami women’s tennis team overpowered No. 3 seed Boston College, 4-0 Friday afternoon at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in the BIG EAST Championship semi-finals to advance to Saturday’s championship match-up with No. 1 seed Notre Dame.
The Hurricanes (16-3) opened the match with two quick wins in doubles behind teammates Mari Toro (Miami, Fla.) and Audrey Banada (North Miami Beach, Fla.), who downed BC’s (14-6) Szilvia Szegedi and Emily Yeomans, 8-0 at the No. 3 position followed by the 27th-ranked duo of Megan Bradley (Columbia, Mo.) and Melissa Applebaum’s (Coral Gables, Fla.) win over Emily Hellberg and Nida Waseem, 8-0 at No. 1.
Miami, leading 1-0 in the overall match score, rolled into singles play with missing a step.
UM’s Sara Robbins (Tuscon, Ariz.) quickly put the Hurricanes up 2-0 in the match with a straight sets win at No. 6 over Hellberg, 6-1, 6-0 while 4th-ranked Bradley cruised past Szegedi, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 to pull Miami within one point of the victory.
With the score at 3-0 in favor of the Hurricanes, Banada sealed the Miami win, downing the Eagles’ Amy Molden, 6-3, 6-0 at No. 5.
The Hurricanes will advance to take on defending champion Notre Dame Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in an attempt to claim their eighth BIG EAST title. The match-up with the Irish also marks the ninth consecutive time the two schools have met in the BIG EAST Championship finals.
No. 2 Miami 4, No. 3 Boston College 0
The BIG EAST Championships – Semi-Finals
April 30, 2004
Coral Gables, Fla.
Singles
1. Megan Bradley (UM) def. Szilvia Szegedi (BC), 6-0, 6-1
2. Melissa Applebaum (UM) vs. Allison Ashley (BC), 6-2, 5-3 (DNF)
3. Mari Toro (UM) vs. Nida Waseem (BC), 6-2, 3-4 (DNF)
4. Staci Stevens (UM) vs. Morgan Landes (BC), (DNF)
5. Audrey Banada (UM) def. Amy Molden (BC), 6-3, 6-0
6. Sara Robbins (UM) def. Emily Hellberg (BC), 6-1, 6-0
Order of finish: 6, 1, 5
Doubles
1. Megan Bradley/Melissa Applebaum (UM) def. Emily Hellberg/Nida Wassem (BC), 8-0
2. Staci Stevens/Sara Robbins (UM) vs. Allison Ashley/Morgan Landes (BC), 4-1 (DNF)
3. Mari Toro/Audrey Banada (UM) def. Szilvia Szegedi/Emily Yenmans (BC), 8-0
