Hurricanes Fall to Cal in 4-3 Heartbreaker
May 14, 2005
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – California freshman Christina Visico claimed her second match-clinching win in as many days when she upended Miami sophomore Emily Mowery in three sets to give the 24th ranked Golden Bears a 4-3 upset victory over ninth ranked Miami in the Second Round of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center Saturday afternoon.
The loss snaps Miami’s 27-match home winning streak and ends their season with a 21-5 record. Cal improved to 14-8 and advances to the Round of 16 that will be held in Athens, Ga. May 19-22.
The four and a half hour long marathon opened with a battle for the doubles point. Seniors Megan Bradley and Staci Stevens topped Cal’s Jessica Shu/Tiffany Lee pair, 8-5 at No. 2 doubles before Christina Visico and Marion Ravelojaona topped UM’s freshman duo of Caren Seenauth and Patricia Starzyk, 8-4.
With doubles tied 1-1, all eyes focused on court one where Miami’s 26th ranked Melissa Applebaum/Audrey Banada duo, down 6-4 to 37th Suzi Babos and Stephanie Kusano, rallied to tie the score at 6-all. Cal took the next game to make the score 7-6 and were up 40-15 before Miami brought the score to deuce. After four-straight advantage points, Cal finally clinched the doubles point to take a 1-0 match lead into singles play.
Bradley, the nation’s No. 1 ranked player, wasted no time taking a quick 6-0, 6-2 win over eighth ranked Suzi Babos at the No. 1 position. The victory extends Bradley’s winning streak to 38 matches and improves her record to 43-1 overall.
With the match tied at one-all, Cal took the match-lead after Ravelojaona claimed a 6-3, 6-3 straight set win over Starzyk at the No. 4 slot.
Not long after, Stevens scored a 6-2, 6-4 upset victory over 78th ranked Kusano at No. 2 singles to once again tie the score but Cal’s Shu then topped Banada 7-6 (4), 6-3 at the No. 5 slot to give the Golden Bears a 3-2 advantage.
The crowd then gathered around courts three and six where both matches were ensuing in three set battles. At the No. 3 position, Applebaum took a 7-5 first set win over Monica Wiesener before dropping the second set 6-3. She went on to win the third set 6-2 to claim the victory.
The match came down to the No. 6 slot where Mowery and Visico where already dueling in the third set. Mowery took the first set 6-4 before Visico claimed the second and third set by the score of 6-4 to give the Golden Bears the 4-3 victory.
“We didn’t play well. We didn’t play well in the big points. We just did not play good tennis,” said Miami Head Coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews. “When you play a team like Cal, a team that every week play’s tough competition, they are going to get in there and fight and not let down. If you miss too many opportunities against a team like that you won’t win the match.”
The Hurricanes will now focus their attention on the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship where Bradley will be the No. 1 seed in the singles competition and will pair up with Banada as the third seed in doubles. The NCAA Individual Championship begins May 22nd and goes through May 28th in the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
