Miami Advances Three in NCAA Singles Tournament
May 20, 2009
College Station, Texas – Three University of Miami women’s tennis players advanced in the opening round of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championships on Wednesday, May 20 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas.
Already competing with the most players in school history for the event, Miami advanced three-of-four student-athletes through to the Round of 32 with straight-set wins across for the victorious Hurricanes.
The day began with All-ACC performer Julia Cohen, the No. 2 seed for the tournament and third-ranked in the Campbell’s/ITA singles poll, bouncing back from back-to-back losses to capture a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over South Carolina’s Ana Marija Zubori (No. 48). Of Cohen’s last 13 victories in singles play, all have come in straight-set performances for the Philadelphia native.
“The first round is always hard,” commented Cohen afterwards. “I just felt that if I got into the match, I would be ok. I’m just glad I got through it. I just think that I was a little bit tight in the first set because it’s the first round, but I got used to it.”
She will now advance to take on Kristi Boxx (No. 36) of Ole Miss who downed Baylor’s Jelena Stanivuk in her opening-round match. This will be a rematch for the two opponents, as Cohen took down Boxx in a memorable three-set marathon (5-7, 6-3, 6-4) in the Round of 16 at the Riviera/ITA All-America Championships back in October.
Laura Vallverdu, probably playing as good of tennis as any on the UM team right now, entered her first round matchup with Notre Dame’s Kelcy Tefft (No. 29) working on a 12-match win streak. That streak would extend one match further as she downed Tefft in straight sets (6-1, 6-4). Vallverdu, a two-time All-American, avenged an earlier loss from the fall season as Tefft defeated Vallverdu (6-2, 7-5) at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Charlottesville, Va.
Vallverdu, ranked 24th in the nation, advances to take on Clemson’s Ani Mijacika, the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Player of the Year. Mijacika is the No. 4 overall seed for this year’s singles field, and currently No. 4 in the Campbell’s/ITA poll. The last time these two met, it was Mijacika claiming a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory over Vallverdu in an ACC regular season match on Mar. 7, 2008.
“Laura is playing some of the best tennis of anyone in the nation right now,” stated UM head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews. “She came out and just dominated an opponent she lost to earlier in the year. If she continues to play this well, then she can go far in this tournament.”
The third Hurricanes player to advance to the second round was sophomore Bianca Eichkorn (No. 31), earning a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Baylor’s Taylor Ormond (No. 39). The Tengen, Germany native trailed just once in the final set, that being an advantage loss on deuce-point in the fifth game after a chance for break-serve.
Eichkorn will meet Yasmin Schnack (No. 15) of UCLA as her next round opponent. Already sitting third all-time at UM for singles wins in a season with 39, Eichkorn is just three wins shy of tying Audra Cohen (2006-07) who had 42 wins in her NCAA Singles Championship run in 2007.
Hurricanes sophomore Michaela Kissell, ranked No. 49 in the singles poll, fell in her final singles match of the year on a 6-2, 6-4 line to Georgia’s Chelsey Gullickson (No. 9). Kissell ends her singles season with a career-best 36-9 record, and placed herself in a tie for fifth place all-time for single-season victories–sitting alongside Ronni Reis Bernstein (1984-85), current head coach at the University of Michigan.
The Hurricanes singles players get back to action on Thursday, May 21 beginning in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the doubles pair of 19th-ranked Michaela Kissell and Laura Vallverdu will begin their quest for an NCAA Doubles title Thursday morning when they take on the 29th-ranked duo of Maria Mosolova and Keri Robison from Northwestern. This will be the second time this year the two teams have met, with Northwestern claiming an 8-4 decision as part of a 6-1 Wildcats win over the `Canes in the ITA National Team Indoor Tournament (Madison, Wis.) on Feb. 13.
For more information on the NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles/Doubles Championships, please log on to www.ncaa.com. For information on the official site of the championships, please visit http://www.aggieathletics.com/ncaa2009/tennis/.
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.
