NCAA Coral Gables Regional Action Begins Friday At UM
May 8, 2008
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – First round action of the 2008 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships is set to begin Friday at the University of Miami’s Neil Schiff Tennis Center with the first two matches of the Coral Gables Regional slated for 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. <?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Play will open when 12th-ranked and top-seeded Miami (15-5) – one of just 10 teams nationally to have been selected as a regional host each of the last four seasons – will face fourth-seeded Quinnipiac (9-10) at 11 a.m. Second-seeded Notre Dame (21-8) will then take on No. 3-seed Florida International (13-9) at 2 p.m. in the second match of the day.
The winners of Friday’s matches will move on to face one another in the regional final Saturday at 11 a.m. The team that emerges from Saturday’s championship match will then head to Tulsa, Okla. for the round of 16, May 15-20 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
Miami, winners of seven of its last eight matches heading into next weekend’s regional, is making its 13th straight appearance in the NCAA Women’s Championship – the last seven under the direction of head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews.
UM Notes
Lau Leading the Way
A great amount of Miami’s success this season can be credited to sophomore All-American and two-time All-ACC performer Laura Vallverdu, who continues to carry the Hurricanes from the No. 1 singles position. Having won 14 of her last 16 matches overall and nine of 11 against No. 1 players in the ACC, Vallverdu (27-9) has consistently proven to be one of the top players in the country this season. With her win over Maryland’s Michal Amir on April 6, Vallverdu became just the sixth player in school history to win 25 singles matches in back-to-back seasons. Some of her biggest wins in singles play this year include victories over No. 10 Susie Babos of Cal, No. 15 Zuzana Zemenova of Baylor and No. 5 Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech.
45-16
Bianca Eichkorn and Michaela Kissell – UM’s two standout freshmen in 2008 – have combined to win 45 of 61 singles matches this year. Eichkorn (27-7), who has won eight straight matches mostly at No. 4, tied with Laura Vallverdu for a team-high 26 wins during the regular season. Kissell (18-9), who has spent the majority of the ACC season playing in the second and third positions in UM’s lineup, opened the spring winning her first 11 matches and is currently ranked 62nd by the ITA.
Mighty Middle
The middle of UM’s lineup has proven to be one of the strongest in the ACC this season. Four Hurricanes – Romy Farah, Michaela Kissell, Bianca Eichkorn and Caren Seenauth – have combined to go 29-8 (.784) in the third and fourth positions during the dual match season. Farah is 5-2 at No. 3, Kissell is 7-3 at No. 3 and 1-0 at No. 4, Eichkorn is 2-0 at No. 3 and 12-3 at No. 4 while Seenauth is 2-0 at No. 4.
20-20 Vision
Those who have followed the UM women’s tennis program in recent years can always count on one thing: Caren Seenauth’s consistent winning. Seenauth is one of just six players in UM history to rank in the school’s all-time Top 10 in both career singles (87) and career doubles (88) victories. UM’s only four-year letterwinner, Seenauth reached the 20-win mark in both singles and doubles play for the third straight season earlier this year. She finished the regular season with a singles record of 23-13 overall and doubles mark of 23-16.
Farah’s Forte
A year after collecting 34 doubles wins in 2006-07, senior Romy Farah has continued to have success in doubles play in 2007-08. She currently leads the team with 26 doubles victories, going 11-7 with Caren Seenauth — mostly in the fall season — and 15-5 with Laura Vallverdu. This spring, Farah has teamed with Vallverdu to go 12-5 in doubles dual matches at No. 1. The tandem comes into play this weekend having won five of their last six and 11 of their last 14 going back to early February.
Regional Notes
About Quinnipiac
The Bobcats (9-10) are coming off of winning their fifth consecutive Northeast Conference Championship after defeating Long Island University, 4-2, nearly three weeks ago at the Mercer County Tennis Center in West Windsor, N.J. The win over LIU was Quinnipiac’s fifth straight victory over the Blackbirds in the NEC in the championship match. After defeating Siena to open the season, the Bobcats lost four straight before back-to-back wins over Colgate and Villanova in early March. After dropping five of its next seven matches from there, they closed out the season winning four of their last five heading into play this weekend. The Bobcats’ top three players are Mary Wilson (17-8), Jackie Herb (13-11) and Adrienne Markison (16-10). Wilson is 6-5 in the No. 1 position, Herb is 7-4 at No. 2 and Markison is 7-2 at No. 3. In doubles play, Wilson and Markison have teamed to go 15-7 overall and 6-3 in dual match play at No. 1, while Herb and Amanda Petruzzi are 9-1 in the second position.
About Notre Dame
The Irish (21-8) enter the weekend having won 14 of their last 15 matches after a 7-7 start to the dual match season. After going 5-0 in Big East play during the regular season, Notre Dame won three straight games at the Big East Championship in Tampa, downing Rutgers and No. 66 DePaul 4-0 and 5-0 before taking out No. 46 USF in the title match, 4-1. In non-conference play, the Irish lost three of four matches to ACC opponents, beating No. 19 Wake Forest, 4-3, while losing 4-3 to then-No. 8 Duke, 6-1 to No. 5 North Carolina and 5-2 to No. 2 Georgia Tech. Kelcy Tefft carries the Irish from the top singles position, coming in with a mark of 25-8 overall and 14-5 at No. 1. Brook Buck is 15-10 in the second singles position and Cosmina Ciobanu is 13-5 at No. 3. Kali Krisik, who is 11-3 at No. 5 and 11-1 at No. 6, leads the team with 23 dual match victories. In doubles action, the tandem of Tefft and Buck is one of the best in country, entering NCAA play at the No. 3 team nationally. The pair is 35-5 overall and 24-3 in dual match play and have lost just one match since mid-February.
About FIU
The Golden Panthers (13-9) reached the NCAA Championships as an at-large team after falling 4-3 to Denver in the Sun Belt Conference Championship match April 20 in Monroe, La. Prior to the match against Denver, FIU had won four straight and eight of their previous 10, including wins over North Texas and South Alabama in the SBC tournament. The Golden Panthers opened their 2008 dual match season against UM at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center, where Hurricanes came away with a 6-1 win on Feb. 2. Liset Brito (6-8) and Egle Petrauskaite (6-1) have split time at No. 1 during FIU’s dual match season. Petrauskaite, who is also 11-3 at No. 2, is tied with teammate Priscilla Castillo — who has split time between No. 4 and No. 5 — for a team-high 19 overall wins. At the bottom of FIU’s lineup, Maria Spenceley and Maria Vallasciani have combined to go 14-6 in the No. 6 position. Brito owns a record of 14-1 in the No. 1 doubles position, going 9-1 with Petrauskaite and 5-0 with Castillo.
UM vs. The Field
Miami owns an overall mark of 29-12 against teams in the Coral Gables Regional. The Hurricanes own a 23-2 record over FIU, including the 6-1 win over the Golden Panthers earlier this season at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center. Notre Dame holds a 10-6 advantage over Miami. UM won the last meeting with Notre Dame, picking up a 4-0 shutout win over the Irish in the quarterfinal round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, the same season the Hurricanes reached the NCAA Championship Final. Prior to that meeting, the two teams met regularly as conference foes in the Big East before UM moved into the ACC in 2005. Friday’s match versus Quinnipiac will be the first meeting between the two schools.
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 more information on the Coral Gables Regional, visit the women’s tennis page at www.hurricanesports.com.
Coral Gables Regional Schedule
Friday, May 9
Match 1: Quinnipiac vs. No. 12 Miami, 11 a.m.
Match 2: Notre Dame vs. FIU, 2 p.m.
Saturday, May 10
Match 3: Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2 – 11 a.m.
