Women's Tennis Loses Hard Fought Battle to No. 4 Florida 4-3
Feb. 18, 2007
Gainesville, Fla. – The eighth ranked University of Miami women’s tennis team took on the No. 4 University of Florida to capture the doubles point, but fell to the Gators 4-3 Sunday afternoon at the Linder Stadium. With the loss, the Hurricanes fall 5-2 overall, while the Gators improve 7-0 on the season.
The day began with doubles as Audra Cohen and Caren Seenauth partnered up to take on Megan Alexander and Diana Srebrovic in the No. 2 spot as they defeated the Gators 8-3. Florida took the next doubles win the No. 3 spot before Miami’s No. 6 ranked Audrey Banada and Romy Farah topped No. 14 Whitney Benik and Nina Suvak 8-4 to clinch the doubles point and put Miami up on the board first.
In singles play, the Gators captured the first win at the No. 6 spot. In return, junior Gina Sabatino handed Florida their first loss in singles to capture her first defeat over a ranked player this season against No. 78 junior Whitney Benik 7-5, 6-4 at the No. 4 position.
Florida went on to claim a win in the No. 3 position before No. 1 ranked Audra Cohen posted her seventh victory in singles this season. Cohen faced No. 11 Diana Srebrovic and swept the junior Gator 6-4, 6-4 to put Miami up 3-2 at this point in the match.
In the final two matches, it was Caren Seenauth and No. 56 Audrey Banada battling their respective opponents to clinch the match.
Seenauth went up against Nina Suvak on court No. 5 claiming the first set before her opponent responded in the second set to take the win. With the score 6-2, 6-3 entering the third set, Seenauth found her groove after being down 5-1 and bounced back to tie the score 5-5. However her opponent notched two additional points that led to the win at 7-5.
With the match tied up at three, the focus was then shifted to Banada at court No. 2. The senior was engaged in a back and forth battle against No. 95 Megan Alexander who posted the first win at 6-2. In return, Banada claimed the second set at 6-3, letting it all come down to the third set. By this time, the intensity grew as the long match saw Banada charge back to notch three points after being down 4-0. As Alexander went up 5-3, Banada fell just short in the next serve before her opponent claimed the final win at 6-3.
The Hurricanes will be back in action March 1 to take on cross-town rival Florida International. The match is set to begin at 2 p.m. at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
