Wrapping Up Another Successful Women's Tennis Season
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s tennis team enjoyed yet another successful season in 2011, reaching the NCAA quarterfinals for the third straight year and the fifth time in the last six seasons.
The Canes had eventual champion Florida on the ropes in the Elite Eight – trailing 3-1 but point leading in the remaining three matches at one point late – but it wasn’t meant to be as the Gators held on before eventually winning the whole thing.
Despite the loss, Miami is one of just three programs in the country (along with Baylor and Duke) to have reached the quarterfinal round of the team tournament each of the last three seasons.
Eichkorn Closes Out Historic Career
Senior Bianca Eichkorn wrapped up one of the more productive and memorable careers of any Hurricane in program history, breaking the record for the most singles victories all-time for any man or woman at the University of Miami.
Eichkorn, the 2011 ACC Player of the Year, won a team-best 33 singles matches as a senior to close out her career with a record 133 victories. The Tengen, Germany native also became one of just four players in program history to record 100-plus career victories in both singles as doubles as she finished second on the all-time doubles chart with 108 wins.
Against ACC opponents, Eichkorn was nearly unbeatable. In four years of conference play, she went an impressive 37-3 in singles, including a perfect 11-0 mark as a senior in the Canes’ top singles position – with all but one of those wins coming in straight sets. Over her final two seasons, the ITA Southeast Region Senior of the Year went 45-4 in dual match play.
“Bianca has meant so much to this program,” head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said. “She came in with class, she is going out with class and our program will be a stronger program for years to come because of her presence.”
Bianca & Anna
In addition to her singles accomplishments this past season, Eichkorn enjoyed similar success in doubles, where she teamed with Anna Bartenstein to go 32-5 overall and 24-2 in dual match play in Miami’s top position.
Eichkorn and Bartenstein also turned in an impressive 10-1 record against ACC opponents during the regular season, the best mark of any tandem in the conference in the No. 1 spot.
The tandem played their best tennis down the stretch, winning 14 of their last 15 over the season’s final two months. During that span and in the postseason, they defeated a fourth-ranked team from Clemson, an eighth-ranked team from Michigan and was leading 7-5 against a second-ranked team from Florida when the match was abandoned.
Eichkorn and Bartenstein climbed in the rankings all season, moving up from No. 46 in the preseason to No. 5 at the season’s end. Their 32 wins on the year ranks in a tie for 10th all-time in a single season at UM.
Yaroshuk-Tews Reaches 200
In addition to leading her team on another deep run in the NCAAs, head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews reached an impressive milestone by winning her 200th career match in just her 10th season at the helm. The historic win came in Miami’s first round match of the Coral Gables Regional in a 4-0 win over FIU on May 13 at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
“It’s the result of a lot of great teams and a lot of great girls in this program,” Yaroshuk-Tews said of reaching the mark at the time. “It’s crazy to think that it’s already 200.”
Heading into next season, Yaroshuk-Tews boasts a career record of 202-61 and a winning percentage of .768.
She has now led the Canes to 20-plus wins seven of the last eight years in addition to guiding her team to six straight Sweet 16 appearances and four Top 10 ITA finishes in the last six seasons.
Looking Ahead to 2012
While Miami loses its all-time winningest student-athlete Bianca Eichkorn to graduation, the Canes do return the rest of the top half of their line-up in rising seniors Anna Bartenstein and Gabriela Mejia.
Bartenstein’s success in singles play nearly matched that of Eichkorn’s this spring, as the Graz, Austria native went 19-4 in dual match play and 10-1 against ACC opponents in the No. 2 position.
Mejia’s 25 singles wins on the season trailed only Eichkorn’s mark of 33, as the Cali, Colombia native went 19-6 in dual match play and 8-3 against ACC foes. She spent time at No. 5 and No. 4 during the dual match season, but had solidified her place in the No. 3 position late in the year.
The returning tandem played their best late in 2011, combining to win 18 of their last 21 matches in singles down the stretch.
