Women's Tennis Opens Season at Georgia Tech Invite
Sept. 17, 2009
Coral Gables, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s tennis team is set to begin the 2009 fall season Friday, Sept. 18 when they travel to the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational in Atlanta, Ga. The event runs Friday, Sept. 18 through Sunday, Sept. 20 at the Bill Moore Tennis Center on the campus of Georgia Tech.
Miami head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews embarks upon her ninth year at the helm of the Hurricanes women’s tennis program in Coral Gables, and expects positive results heading into the season – stretching from last year.
UM returns five letterwinners from last year’s quarterfinals appearance at the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships. UM finished the 2009 campaign with three ITA All-America honors in singles play, as well as finishing the year 26-5 overall. The Hurricanes also claimed the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season title, in addition to advancing to the finals match of the ACC Championships.
Six players for the Hurricanes will be in action this weekend, including three-time All-American Laura Vallverdu – a 2009 NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championship finals participant. Joining Vallverdu will be All-American Bianca Eichkorn, who is expected to play some doubles action with a partner to be determined later by Yaroshuk-Tews.
Vallverdu enters the fall campaign ranked No. 6 in the preseason ITA rankings, matching her highest ranking in ITA singles history dating back to the 2006-07 season. Last season, she became the first UM women’s tennis player to post 30-or more wins in her first three seasons. She currently owns a record of 96-21, and will step onto the court Friday morning needing just 15 wins to pass Audrey Bañada (2003-07) to become UM’s all-time career wins leader.
Eichkorn, expected to play doubles play for UM this weekend, enters the fall ranked No. 21 in the ITA preseason poll after recording a team-best 40-9 overall mark in 2008-09. She advanced to the Round of 16 at the NCAA Singles Championships this past spring, while her 40 wins placed her third all-time in Miami women’s tennis history for single-season wins. She enters the new year holding a career record of 69-17, sitting 24th all-time in UM history for career wins.
Also playing for UM is senior Claudia Wasilewski and sophomore Gabriela Mejia, players who played intricate parts in last year’s NCAA Quarterfinals run for the `Canes.
As a junior Wasilewski earned a record of 24-6, and went 13-5 at the No. 6 singles spot. Mejia posted a mark of 22-13 in singles play as a freshman, and teamed with Wasilewski in doubles play 17 times on the course of the year. Together, they collected back-to-back wins at the No. 3 doubles position for the `Canes at the NCAA Tournament [Coral Gables Regional].
Newcomers Anna Bartenstein and Danielle Mills will be making their Hurricanes debut.
Bartenstein is a sophomore transfer from Tulane University where she picked up a record of 7-4 last season at the No. 1 singles position. Mills comes to UM as a highly-touted freshman from Bradenton, Florida. She prepped at The Pendleton School, while playing tennis for IMG Academy.
For more in-depth information on this year’s Georgia Tech Fall Invitational, please click here.
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.
2009 Georgia Tech Fall Invitational Schedule
Friday
10:30 a.m. – Singles – UGA vs. Princeton
1:30 p.m. – Singles – GT vs. Miami
3:30 p.m. – Doubles – GT vs. Princeton; UGA vs. Miami
Saturday
10 a.m. – Doubles – GT vs. UGA; Miami vs. Princeton
11:30 a.m. – Singles – GT vs. Princeton
1:30 p.m. – Singles – Miami vs. UGA
Sunday
9 a.m. – Doubles – GT vs. Miami; UGA vs. Princeton
10:30 a.m. – Singles – GT vs. Princeton
1 p.m. – Singles- GT vs. UGA
