UM Women's Tennis Surges Past Wake Forest, 7-0
April 5, 2009
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Coral Gables, Fla. – Fifth-ranked Miami (20-3, 9-1 ACC) swept through its second-straight opponent Sunday, collecting a 7-0 decision over No. 34 Wake Forest (12-8, 3-5 ACC) in an ACC women’s tennis affair held at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in Coral Gables, Fla. The match was streamed live via ACC Select.
When Miami is on, Miami is definitely ON. The Hurricanes continued their impressive home season finishing out the campaign a perfect 14-0 in Coral Gables–a stretch that includes seven sweeps.
“I think the girls are just real comfortable,” expressed UM head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews when asked about Miami’s dominant play at home this year. “They’re very comfortable playing in this environment; playing in these elements. They’re tough, and on a hot day like today, the weather definitely works to our advantage. We’ve always been a team that plays well at home.”
UM opened the day claiming all three doubles matches, including the No. 3 spot for the second-straight match.
The 15th-ranked team of Michaela Kissell and Laura Vallverdu exited the courts first with a dominant 8-0 win over NC State’s Sasha Kulikova and Sierra Poske in top flight singles. That was followed by an 8-3 win for the Hurricanes at the second spot as the 47th-ranked duo of Julia Cohen and Bianca Eichkorn claimed the win–assuring UM the doubles point in the match.
Miami completed a sweep of the doubles matches with the help of freshman Gabriela Mejia and Claudia Wasilewski as they edged Wake Forest’s Christian Tara and Katarina Reveche at the third slot, 8-6.
Already holding a 1-0 advantage heading into singles play, the `Canes wasted little time widening their advantage.
Junior Bianca Eichkorn (No. 47) of the `Canes looked masterful as she completed a straight-set sweep (6-0, 6-0) of the Demon Deacons’ Christian Tara at the fourth slot. Eichkorn continues her sensational performance on the campaign, collecting her 34th win of the season–allowing her to tie former All-American and 2007 NCAA Singles Champion Audra Cohen’s 2005-06 record of 34 wins–good enough for a share of sixth place all-time in single-season wins at UM.
Sophomore Julia Cohen (No. 4) of UM advanced the Hurricanes’ lead to 3-0 as she took a decisive 6-3, 6-1 win over Sasha Kulikova (No. 55) of Wake Forest at the top flight singles position. Cohen advanced her winning streak to 14 matches and now sits 20-2 in the spring. The defeat of Kulikova was her 17th against a nationally-ranked opponent on the season.
Gabriela Mejia clinched the match for the `Canes at the fifth slot as she took a 6-0, 6-1 win over Ryann Cutillo, giving Mejia a three-match winning streak. The Cali, Valle (Colombia) native needs a win in her next two matches to give all six Miami position players 20 wins on the year.
Two-time All-American and 22nd-ranked Laura Vallverdu looked equally strong as she took a 6-0, 6-2 triumph over the Demon Deacons’ Sierra Poske at the No. 2 singles position. Vallverdu has won five consecutive matches, and runs her record to 8-2 in the ACC. Overall, she improves to 21-7 for the year.
“I think Laura [Vallverdu] is really starting to play some of her best tennis deep into the season,” stated Yaroshuk-Tews. “And that’s what Laura Vallverdu does. She knows when we need her. She knows when the important part of the season is. She’s a player that gets up for big matches, and I think she’s starting to prepare herself for the beginning of the post-season.”
Miami stretched the lead to 6-0 when Michaela Kissell used a three-set 6-0, 5-7, 10-2 line to knock off Wake Forest’s Emilee Malvehy at the third slot. Kissell opened the match with an easy 6-0 win, but was unable to keep her momentum going as Malvehy took a 7-5 victory in the second set.
Kissell rallied in the third set to go up 5-1 in the start, only to finish it off, 10-2. Kissell has now won nine consecutive matches en route to claiming a 31-7 record for the year. She also improved to 9-1 against ACC foes.
The final match point came from UM junior Claudia Wasilewski who rallied for a three-set win on scores of 5-7, 6-1, 10-6 over Wake Forest’s Aileen Davis at the sixth position.
After dropping the first set which included a 16-deuce point at 4-4 in the match … which was eventually won by Davis, Wasilewski opened things up in the second set to run out to a quick 5-0 advantage. After Davis collected a win in the sixth game, Wasilewski took the final game and set, 6-1.
In the third set tie-break, Wasilewski fell behind 1-0 before rallying for three consecutive points. She would let the game become tied, 5-5, before rolling off four-straight points en route to the 10-6 victory.
Miami has now peeled off nine consecutive victories, including winning 12 of the last 13 matches overall.
UM closes out the regular season at Maryland on Friday, Apr. 10 at 1 p.m. in College Park. The ACC Tournament begins a week later on Apr. 16 in Cary, N.C. A win over the Terrapins next week would assure the Hurricanes no less than a share of the regular season title, and allow them to claim the top seed in the ACC Tournament.
For more information on University of Miami Women’s Tennis, please log on to www.hurricanesports.com. After browsing to the women’s tennis home page, you will find the latest news, stats and match notes pertaining to the Hurricanes Women’s Tennis program.
