UM's Vallverdu, Farah Selected To NCAA Championships
April 30, 2008
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – University of Miami sophomore All-American Laura Vallverdu was selected to the 2008 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship in both singles and doubles play for the second consecutive season, the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Subcommittee announced Wednesday. Vallverdu, who is currently ranked No. 19 by the ITA in singles play, will be playing alongside senior Romy Farah, who will also be competing for a second consecutive year in the doubles championship.
Vallverdu, a two-time All-ACC performer, has won 14 of her last 16 matches in UM’s No. 1 singles position, including nine of 11 against ACC opposition. She currently boasts an overall record of 27-9 and 16-4 in dual match play and has wins over No. 10 Susie Babos of Cal, No. 15 Zuzana Zemenova of Baylor and No. 5 Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech — the 2008 ACC Player of the Year — on her record this season.
The No. 20 team of Vallverdu and Farah has also played well as of late, having won six of their last seven matches together in UM’s No. 1 doubles spot. On the season, Vallverdu, a native of Valencia, Venezuela, and Farah, a native of Cali, Colombia, are 15-5 overall as a pair, including a 12-5 mark in dual match play and an 8-2 record against ACC opposition in the top position.
The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 21-26 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., following the conclusion of the team championships, May 15-20. The singles field is comprised of 64 players while the doubles bracket features 32 teams.
Freshman Michaela Kissell, who owns an overall singles record of 18-9 in her first season at UM, was selected as an alternate in the singles field.
All matches will be the best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games all will be used for all matches.Last season, Vallverdu fell to Catherine Newman of Vanderbilt, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of NCAA singles play before dropping a 6-2, 6-2 doubles match with Audra Cohen to Stanford’s Anne Yelsey and Lindsday Burdette. Farah, playing doubles with Audrey Bañada, also lost her opening round doubles match, 6-4, 7-5, to Ana Cetnik and Anna Sydorska of TCU.
The team will return to action next weekend when it plays host to the 2008 NCAA Coral Gables Regional, May 9-10, at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center. First round action will begin at 11 a.m. on May 9 when No. 12 Miami (15-5) battles Quinnipiac (9-10) at 11 a.m. before Notre Dame (21-8) faces Florida International (13-9) at 2 p.m. The winners of Friday’s matches will square off against one another in the regional final the following morning at 11 a.m. Tickets for the Coral Gables Regional are $5 for adults and $3 for students, children and senior citizens per day. To purchase tickets, contact the UM Ticket Office at 1-800-GO-CANES.
For the complete fields for the singles and doubles championships, visit www.ncaasports.com.
