Women's Tennis Set for NCAA Singles/Doubles Tournament

May 19, 2009

NCAA Singles Bracket [PDF] | NCAA Doubles Bracket [PDF] | Live Video/Stats

College Station, Texas – The University of Miami will have four women’s tennis players participating in this year’s NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships beginning Wednesday, May 20 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station.

After finishing the team portion of this year’s NCAA Tournament with a tough, hard-fought 4-1 defeat in the quarterfinals to the Duke Blue Devils–who will participate in the NCAA title match Tuesday, May 19 at 6 p.m. [CST], the Hurricanes now set their sights on a chance for individual titles.

All matches shall be the best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games will be used for all matches.

Three-time All-ACC member and two-time All-American Laura Vallverdu will compete in both the singles and doubles portion of this year’s event as she headlines a list of four individuals and a team of doubles to represent the Hurricanes.

Vallverdu, currently ranked No. 24 in the Campbell’s/ITA singles poll, won all four of her singles matches at the No. 2 spot for UM in the team portion of this year’s NCAA Tournament, including a straight-set triumph (6-3, 6-3) over Duke’s Ellah Nze, also competing in the field of 64. Vallverdu enters the tournament sporting an overall record of 28-7, working on a 12-match win streak to boot.

For Vallverdu, this will be her third consecutive trip to the NCAA Singles Tournament, as well as the doubles tournament.

In doubles play, Vallverdu will team with sophomore Michaela Kissell as the two own a record of 17-8 on the year, and are currently 7-3 in their last 10 matches together. As a team, they rank No. 19 in the Campbell’s/ITA doubles poll.

Kissell will also be making an appearance as a singles player in this year’s field, working with a career-best 36-8 mark on the year–good enough for a share of fifth place all-time at UM beside Ronni Reis Bernstein (1984-85) for wins in a single season. The Hostetter, Pa. native enters the tournament ranked No. 49 by the ITA, and is the second UM player on this year’s roster to own at least 30 wins on the campaign.

Fellow sophomore Bianca Eichkorn is the third player from UM playing in this year’s field. The Tengen, Germany native is having the best year of any UM sophomore in history, sporting a 38-8 overall record for the season. That record is third place all-time at UM for singles wins in a season, putting her just four wins away from tying All-American and 2007 NCAA Singles Champion Audra Cohen’s record of 42-2 accomplished during her championship run in 2006-07. Eichkorn is ranked No. 31 in the ITA singles poll, winning six of her last 10 matches with two left unfinished.

Rounding out this year’s singles field of 64 for the `Canes is sophomore Julia Cohen, ranked No. 3 this week in the Campbell’s/ITA singles poll. Cohen is a Top 8 seed in this year’s event, entering with a record of 29-7 on the year. If she can claim a victory against her first round opponent, then she will help UM to its first trio of 30-win players since the 2006-07 campaign.

Joining Cohen as one of the top eight seeded players is Maria Mosolova (Northwestern), claiming the No. 1 overall seed, and followed by Aurelija Miseviciute (Arkansas), Ani Mijacika (Clemson), Mallory Cecil (Duke), Fani Chifchieva (Auburn), Hilary Barte (Stanford) and Chelsey Gullickson (Georgia).

For more information on the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships, please visit www.ncaa.com. For information on the official site of the championships, please visit www.aggieathletics.com/ncaa2009/tennis/index.html.

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.