Vallverdu & Kissell Win Doubles Draw of ITA Summer Tourney
Aug. 13, 2008
Bloomington, Ind. – University of Miami women’s tennis players Laura Vallverdu and Michaela Kissell used an 8-3 advantage on Wednesday to clinch the doubles title of the ITA Summer Championships at the Indiana University Varsity Tennis Center in Bloomington.
Vallverdu, a back-to-back All-America performer for the Hurricanes, withdrew from singles play due to an injury prior to today’s round of 16. She entered as the top seed in this year’s event. However, that did not stop her and teammate Kissell in blowing past opponents in doubles action.
Together, the top-seeded doubles team in the tournament defeated the team of Muresan and Sugiyama (Michigan) to collect this year’s championship. They earned the trip to the title game with a victory over Ohio State’s Flower and Keesey.
“I’m really happy about our win today even though things didn’t go as smoothly as we would have liked,” Vallverdu stated. “However, we got the job done and that’s the bottom line.”
In singles play, Kissell advanced on to the semifinals with a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (5) win over Dartmouth’s Molly Scott in her first match of the day, followed by a straight-set 7-5, 6-2 win over ninth-seeded Claire Bartlett of Virginia. In the process, Kissell moved her all-time record against Cavalier opponents to 2-0.
She defeated Maggie Yahner 6-1, 6-3 last season in Charlottesville, Va.
Kissell, a 5-foot-8 rising sophomore for the Hurricanes, entered this week’s field of 73 unseeded, but has proven her worth with straight-set victories in three of her first four matches.
The women’s semis will feature Denver’s Mallory Voelker against Michigan’s Denise Muresan, and Miami’s (Fla.) Michaela Kissell against William & Mary’s Ragini Acharya. Acharya has now won 10 straight matches at this event over the past two years. She will be looking to become the second player to repeat as women’s singles champ since Georgia’s Tina Samara won the first two titles in 1994-95.
The ITA National Summer Championships presented by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) are the pinnacle of the ITA Collegiate Summer Circuit, which was played at 26 regional sites throughout the country in July.
The singles and doubles champions from the ITA National Summer Championships earn wild cards into the first national tournaments of the 2008-09 collegiate tennis season – the D’Novo Men’s and Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships in October.
More than 25,000 men and women have competed in circuit events since it began in 1993. The circuit is the brainchild of Indiana head women’s tennis coach Lin Loring and provides college tennis players the opportunity to compete in organized events virtually year round. It is made up of seven regional circuits (East, Southeast, Midwest, Central, Mountain, Southwest and West) and six of the seven regions consists of four consecutive tournaments played during the month of July, leading up to the ITA National Summer Championships.
This is the eighth straight year IU is serving as tournament host for the championships, which began in 1994.
For a complete Championship schedule and a list of past championships, you can log on to the official ITA website at www.ITAtennis.com.
