Women's Tennis Set to Compete in the USTA/ITA National Indoors
Dec. 15, 2006
Coral Gables, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s tennis team has been invited to compete in the prestigious USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships taking place February 1-4 which features 16 of the nation’s top collegiate women’s teams.
“It’s always such an honor to be invited”, said head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews. “The past couple of years we have been happy with being invited, and I think this coming year we’re going with a little bit of a different attitude. Our goal is to win the tournament”.
“We know how much of a huge honor it is to be invited and we want to keep the outlook humble”.
As college tennis’ premier indoor team tournament, the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championship has been hosted by the University of Wisconsin in Madison since the tournament’s inception in 1988. The tournament will continue to take place at the Badgers’ A.C. Nielson Tennis Stadium.
The 16 teams that have been invited to the annual tournament are Baylor, BYU, California, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Pepperdine, Stanford, TCU, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Virginia Commonwealth, and host Wisconsin.
This is Miami’s third consecutive appearance in the National Indoors. In the two previous years the Hurricanes have lost in the quarterfinals.
Last week, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) announced the final FILA/ITA regional rankings for the fall season, as Miami has four players ranked within the top 20 in the south region. Junior Audra Cohen remains the top player in the south region, while freshman Laura Vallverdu came in ranked No.5. Senior Audrey Banada is ranked No.13, while Romy Farah is ranked No. 18.
In doubles, Miami has two teams in the south regional rankings. Audra Cohen and Laura Vallverdu are ranked No. 2, while Audrey Banada and Romy Farah are ranked No. 6.
“I’m so proud of the team in terms of their depth”, stated Yaroshuk-Tews. “We have such a large number of girls represented in the regional rankings at such a high level. It says a lot about what this team accomplished this fall.”
The Hurricanes will open the 2007 spring season with two home matches before traveling to the four-day tournament. Miami will face in-state rival Florida Atlantic at home January 26th at 2:00 pm and Princeton January 27th at 2:00 pm.
