Miami's Vallverdu Falls in NCAA Singles Tourney Semifinals
May 30, 2010
Athens, Ga. – Miami women’s tennis senior Laura Vallverdu ended her run for an NCAA Singles title on Sunday, falling to No. 2 seed Jana Juricova of California, 7-6(6), 6-2 in the semifinals of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Vallverdu, the Hurricanes all-time leader in singles wins for the women’s program–concluding her four-year career in Coral Gables with a 131-34 mark, took second-seeded Juricova to the brink in the first set of a physically draining match for both student-athletes. With the first set tied, 3-3, Juricova stepped in front at 5-4, before Vallverdu battled back to knot things, 6-6. The Golden Bears’ top position player in singles then collected the 8-6 tie-break for the 1-0 set advantage in the match.
In the second set, Juricova broke Valklverdu’s serve early to take a 2-0 advantage, though Miami’s top position player fought back to bring the match to within, 4-2. However, in the end, Vallverdu was unable to continue her championship run as Juricova broke serve again, collecting the final 6-2 set decider.
For Vallverdu, she ends the 2009-10 season with a team-leading 35 singles wins, and finishes the campaign at 35-13 overall. She completed the dual season at 19-6, all at the No. 1 line, and ended the campaign 21-12 against nationally ranked opponents.
Sunday’s match also served as the second consecutive season Vallverdu has at least advanced to the NCAA Singles Semifinals, finishing as the NCAA Singles Runner-Up a season ago in College Station, Texas. In addition, she is now a four-time All-American and four-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer for the Hurricanes, all under the watch of women’s tennis head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews.
Vallverdu is also the first player in UM women’s tennis history to collect at least 30 wins in each of her four years with the program. She is also Miami’s first four-time All-ACC women’s tennis selection.
In other tennis-related news, as a team, the Hurricanes women’s program ended the 2010 spring season ranked No. 10 in the final Campbell/ITA team rankings. That is a spot above the `Canes position and seeding heading into the NCAA Team Tournament, in which they advanced to the quarterfinals for the second consecutive season, and the fourth time in the last five years.
The final ITA singles and doubles rankings will be released on Mon., June 7.
