Hurricanes Down the Seminoles to Advance to the Semifinals of the ACC Championships
April 20, 2007
Cary, N.C. -The fourth seeded University of Miami women’s tennis team advanced to the semifinals of the women’s tennis Atlantic Coast Conference Championships with a 4-3 victory over fifth seeded Florida State (15-7, 8-5 ACC), Friday afternoon at the Cary Tennis Center.
Miami (18-5, 9-3 ACC) advances to play top seeded Clemson (20-3, 10-1 ACC) Saturday, April 21 at 10 a.m.
The match was originally set to begin at noon, but due to rain delays that caused a few set-backs in schedule-of-play for multiple matches, the match began at 3 p.m.
The delays did not put a damper on the Hurricanes who captured the doubles point with No. 30-ranked Audra Cohen and Laura Vallverdu defeating Nicola Slater and Carolin Walter, 8-1, at the No. 1 position. The No. 3 slot saw Miami’s duo of Audrey Banada and Gina Sabatino go up against Jessica Wente and Miranda Foley to claim an 8-2 victory, and send Miami ahead 1-0.
In singles, the Hurricanes posted a 2-0 score when top ranked Cohen downed Slater, and held her to only three games total, with a score of 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 1 position.
The Seminoles proved they were there for a fight, as they rallied back to claim the next three singles points at the Nos. 2, 4, and 5 spots, and captured the lead with the score at 3-2.
No. 50-ranked senior Audrey Banada took on Florida State’s Ania Rynarzewska at the No. 3 spot. The North Miami Beach, Fla. native held her opponent to just two games in the first set with the score at 6-2, The next set saw a great deal of competition between both players, as it came down to a close 7-5 finish with Banada claiming the victory.
With the match tied at three apiece, it came down to the No. 6 slot with junior Gina Sabatino and FSU’s Tapiwa Marobela battleting it out for the win. Sabatino came out ahead with a 6-3 win in the first set. Marobela then rallied back to post six games of her own, as Sabatino was only able to register three with the score at 6-3. The third set came down to a back and forth battle between the two in-state rivals. But it was the Hurricanes who managed to hang on as Sabatino clinched the match to send Miami on to the next round.
Stay tuned to Hurricanesports.com for up-to-date Miami women’s tennis news, results and recaps.
