April 24, 2005
CARY, N.C. – The second-seeded University of Miami women’s tennis team dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker to top-seeded Georgia Tech in a hard fought Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship final that lasted over four hours Sunday afternoon at the CaryTennisCenter.
The Yellow Jackets, ranked No. 6 in the country, captured their first ACC Women’s Tennis title and improved to 19-3 on the season. The 12th-ranked Hurricanes, who reached the ACC final in only their first season in the conference, fell to 20-4.
Both teams exchanged victories at the No. 3 and No. 2 doubles positions to open the match. The Yellow Jacket duo of Kelly Anderson and Whitney McCray downed UM’s freshman tandem of Patricia Starzyk and Caren Seenauth, 8-5 as seniors Megan Bradley and Staci Stevens defeated Dasha Potapova and Lyndsay Shosho, 8-2 at the No. 2 slot. The doubles point came down to court one where Georgia Tech’s 18th ranked Alison Silverio and Kristi Miller downed Miami’s 48th ranked Audrey Banada /Melissa Applebaum pair 9-7 to clinch the doubles point.
The Hurricanes reeled off victories at the No. 5, No. 6 and No. 1 positions to take a 3-1 match lead.
Banada, who clinched UM’s win over Clemson in Saturday’s Semifinal, won her 16th-consecutive match when she upended Shosho in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 5 slot before 99th-ranked sophomore Emily Mowery gave up just two games en route to a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Kacie Anson at No. 6 singles.
Bradley, the nation’s No. 1 ranked player and the ACC Player of the Year, won her 37th-straight singles victory with a 6-3, 6-4 win over 19th ranked Miller at the No. 1 slot. Bradley finished with a 3-0 record in the tournament to improve to 42-1 overall.
With a 3-1 lead, the Hurricanes needed only one more singles victory to claim the win but the Yellow Jackets rallied to win at the No. 2 and No. 3 slots to tie the score at 3-all.
With the ACC title in the balance, all eyes turned to the No. 4 slot where Starzyk and Silverio ensued in a three set battle. Starzyk claimed the first set 7-5, but could not fend off Silverio who won the second and third set, 6-4, 6-2 to give Georgia Tech the victory. Silverio was named the Tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
The Hurricanes will now await word on NCAA Selections, which will be announced Wednesday, May 4th.