UM Women Finish Play at Duals in the Desert on Sunday

Nov. 2, 2008

Complete Results | Duals In The Desert Bracket

Palm Desert, Calif. – With one round of singles action remaining on Sunday, sophomore Michaela Kissell collected fifth place in Flight Two as the University of Miami women’s tennis team finished up their three-day tournament play at the annual Duals in the Desert Classic at the Moore Tennis Academy in Palm Desert, Calif.

Also known as the Palm Desert Classic, this year’s event was hosted at the Moore Tennis Academy in Palm Desert, California. The event was broken down into six different flights with the expected position players from each participating team throughout the season taking part in each flight. There were also three rounds of doubles action, as well as two round-robin formats for singles play.

Kissell, a 5-foot-8 native of Hostetter, Pennsylvania, pulled off a straight-set win (6-1, 6-2) over No. 23 Katrina Tsang of North Carolina to earn fifth place in Flight Two singles action. Kissell remains ranked No. 49 by the ITA in the preseason, while the win jumped her record for the fall up to 9-5. She has also won her last two matches while posting a 7-3 mark in her last 10 matches, respectively.

Over in Flight Three, freshman Gabriela Mejia wrapped up her weekend with a tough straight-set loss to No. 30 Samantha Murray of Northwestern, 6-2, 6-4. For Mejia, a freshman from Cali, Valle, Colombia, this was her second consecutive top 40 ranked opponent of the weekend. She fell to Gabriela Niculescu (No. 38) of Northwestern on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes finished up singles play with another freshman, Alessa Waibel, taking on Maggie Mello of Texas in Flight Four. Mello earned a 6-3, 6-2 decision over Waibel to earn the seventh place finish for the weekend.

Miami will step back onto the court next weekend, Nov. 7-9 when they host the UM Women’s Fall Invitational. They will be joined by players from Florida State, FIU, UCF and Baylor.

However, that won’t be the only tennis for the `Canes next weekend as they will also travel to Charlottesville, Virginia to compete in the ITA National Indoor Championships on Nov. 6-9. For more information, please log on to www.itatennis.com for a complete list of teams and student-athletes competing in this year’s ITA sponsored indoor challenge.