Miami Tennis Rallies Back To Upset Southern California, 4-3 in the Round of 16 to Advance to the Quarterfinals
May 18, 2007
Athens, G.A. -The ninth-ranked Miami women’s tennis team rallied back with a vengeance to upset eighth-ranked Southern California (19-5), 4-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship for the third time in four years, Friday afternoon at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia.
Miami kicked off the match with a 1-0 lead over last season’s semifinal opponent, as they captured the doubles point at the Nos. 3 and 1 spots. Audrey Banada and Gina Sabatino pulled off an 8-6 win over the Trojan’s Sarah Fansler and Lindsey Nelson at No. 3 doubles. Over on court No. 1, No. 17-ranked Audra Cohen and Laura Vallverdu clinched the hard fought doubles point as they downed Judy DeVera and Amanda Fink at the No. 1 slot. With the USC duo down 3-7, the Trojans began to rally back to tie it up at seven-all as a result of two aces from Fink. But the fierce Hurricanes clocked in two more games to capture the doubles win at 9-7.
USC captured the lead after they locked in the first two singles points in the back courts starting at No. 6 singles, followed by No. 5. With Southern California ahead 2-1 in the match, the Trojans stretched their lead even further, after winning at No. 4 singles to go ahead 3-1 with the hopes of finishing out the Hurricanes. However the match was not over, because it was just beginning.
Miami’s Nos. 1, 2, and 3 singles players were engaged in intense three-set tie-breaker battles of their own, as they were looking to keep the Hurricanes in the match.
After being down in the first set 2-6, Miami’s No. 48 senior Audrey Banada responded with six games of her own in the second set, and held her opponent, No. 73 Amanda Fink to just two games, at 6-2. Despite Fink trying to make her way back in the final set down 4-5, Banada ran with the 6-4 win at the No. 3 singles position to post the first singles point for the Hurricanes.
“Banada had to get used to the rhythm in her match”, Yaroshuk-Tews mentioned. “Fink was playing her smart and at the same time pacing her, so [Banada] had to transition with a different style of tennis.”
At this point of the match, the blossomed crowed was focused on courts one and two to see who was going to come out with the next singles win, with Cohen tied two-all in her third set, and Vallverdu at five-all in the third set of her match.
The rookie was on fire, as No. 21-ranked Vallverdu faced No. 11 Sarah Fansler. The No. 2 singles match saw Vallverdu jump ahead 6-1 in the first set, but fell 5-7 in the next. With the Hurricanes down 2-3, Vallverdu kept her team in the match after the tied score of 5-5 in the third set, as she nailed in two games that USC did not see coming to finish 7-5, and upset the freshman Trojan.
“For Laura to come from 5-2 down, and roll through with the win, was just impressive”, commented Yaroshuk-Tews.
The match was on the line with the score at 3-3.
On court one, the battle was not yet over as the nation’s No. 1 Cohen and No. 5 Lindsey Nelson sounded off in a fierce battle. It began with Nelson capturing the first set at 7-5. Cohen responded with the same score in the second, forcing a third-set show-down. Cohen took an early 2-1 lead before Nelson tied it at two-all. The junior Trojan was at the service line, as Cohen stretched the lead to 5-3, en route to clinching the match. The third set saw Cohen capture the final game at 6-3, to send Southern California packing and Miami celebrating the match-victory.
“Audra stepped it up deep in the second set”, commented Yaroshuk-Tews. “In the eyes of adversity, she was able to really calm herself down. During her injury timeout, she took a couple of breaths and listened to what I had to say.”
“We’ve known all season that our one, two and three are unbelievable, and that they do a lot for this program” Yaroshuk-Tews stated. “To be able to come out and pull off a win like this in this venue, with a freshman on court two, and an opponent of Lindsey [Nelson’s] caliber on court one, whose game has given us trouble in the past, I think it says if you hang in there long enough, good things happen.”
The Hurricanes will face last season’s championship final opponent, Stanford University in the quarterfinals on Sunday, May 20 beginning at noon. Earlier in the day, Stanford defeated Vanderbilt, 4-0 to advance to the next round.
