Miami Preparing To Take On Baylor In NCAA Round of 16
May 14, 2008
TULSA, Okla. – For the third straight season and the fourth time in the last five years, the University of Miami women’s tennis team will take the court at the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship Round of 16 when it faces Baylor Thursday morning at 10 a.m. EST at the University of Tulsa’s Michael D. Case Tennis Center.<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
No. 12 Miami (17-5) comes into the contest with No. 5 Baylor (30-2) looking for its 10th win in its last 11 matches. The Hurricanes, who will be in search of their fourth NCAA Quarterfinal appearance in five seasons, will also set out to avenge a 4-1 loss to the Bears from earlier this season when the two teams met in Coral Gables, Feb. 17.
Winners of seven of their final eight ACC matches heading into the NCAA Championship, the Hurricanes picked up a pair of convincing 4-0 wins over Quinnipiac and No. 22 Notre Dame at the Coral Gables Regional this past weekend at UM’s Neil Schiff Tennis Center. A day after cruising past Quinnipiac in the opening round, Miami clinched its spot in the Sweet 16 after taking the doubles point and positions one, two and four against the Irish. The `Canes took two out of three doubles matches at No. 1 and No. 2, before freshman Bianca Eichkorn, senior Romy Farah and sophomore All-American Laura Vallverdu won their respective matches at No. 4, No. 2 and No. 1 to clinch the match.
Fourteen of the 16 national seeds have advanced into the NCAA Round of 16, with No. 17 Arkansas and No. 19 Texas as the only two teams to win an NCAA Regional away from home.
Northwestern enters play Thursday as the top-seeded team in the field and will take on No. 16 Fresno State. Three other ACC squads will be in action Thursday, with No. 2 Georgia Tech facing Texas, No. 9 Duke battling No. 8 California and No. 13 Clemson going up against No. 4 Stanford.
Lau Leading the Way
Having won 16 of her last 18 matches overall and nine of 11 against No. 1 players in the ACC, sophomore All-American Vallverdu (29-9) has carried UM at the top of its lineups and 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 — the 19th-ranked singles player nationally — became the sixth player in school history to win 25 singles matches in back-to-back seasons. She currently needs just one more singles victory to become just the fourth player in school history to reach the 30-win mark on two occasions. Since a loss to William & Mary’s Megan Moulton-Levy on Feb. 7, Vallverdu has lost just two singles matches in UM’s top spot. 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.
47-16
Bianca Eichkorn and Michaela Kissell – UM’s two standout freshmen in 2008 – have combined to win 47 of 63 singles matches this year. Eichkorn (29-7), who has won 10 straight matches mostly at No. 4, is currently tied with Laura Vallverdu for a team-high 29 wins this season. Kissell (18-9), who has spent the majority of the season playing in the second and third positions in UM’s lineup, opened the spring winning her first 11 matches and is currently ranked 64th by the ITA.
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 28 doubles victories, going 11-7 with Caren Seenauth — mostly in the fall season — and 17-5 with Laura Vallverdu. This spring, Farah has teamed with Vallverdu to go 14-5 in doubles dual matches at No. 1. The tandem comes into play this weekend having won eight of their last nine and 13 of their last 16 going back to early February.
About Baylor
The Bears (30-2) enter the NCAA Round of 16 having won their last 13 matches, including a 5-0 win over Oral Roberts and a 4-1 win over No. 40 Tulsa in the first two rounds of the NCAA Championship. Senior Zuzana Zemenova leads the Bears at the top of the singles lineup, coming in with an overall record of 31-5. UM’s Laura Vallverdu defeated Zemenova — who has only lost three dual matches all season — when the two teams met in Coral Gables, Feb. 17. Lenka Broosova (44-4) and Taylor Ormond (26-14) have split time at No. 2, with Broosova owning a mark of 12-1 there while Ormand is 7-6 in 13 appearances in that spot. Jana Bielikova and Jelena Stanivuk are a combined 24-4 at No. 4 while Karolina Filipiak is 11-2 at No. 6. In doubles play, Broosova and Zemonova lead the team with a mark of 20-5 in the top position in dual match play. Both of Baylor’s losses came against the nation’s top-ranked team at the time. The Bears’ first loss of the season came on Feb. 7 when they lost to Stanford, 4-2, at the ITA Indoors. The team’s second loss came against the top-seeded team in the NCAA Championship — Northwestern — March 26, when Baylor lost 5-2.
UM vs. Baylor All-Time
UM has won four of six all-time meetings against Baylor, but the Bears won the most recent match between the two programs when the Bears won in Coral Gables. Prior to that meeting, UM earned a convincing 6-1 win over the Bears in consolation play at the 2007 ITA Indoors last spring.
Up Next
The winner of the Miami-Baylor match will take on the winner of the Clemson-Stanford contest that is also slated for 10 a.m. EST on Thursday. The Hurricanes faced both Clemson and Stanford during the regular season, dropping a close 4-3 match to the then-No. 1 Cardinal Feb. 8 at ITA Team Indoors before beating the Tigers, 5-2, a month later when the two teams met in Coral Gables, March 7.
For more information on the 2008 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship, click here.
