W. Tennis Heads to Athens for Sweet 16
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes women’s tennis team is enjoying another long dance. For the ninth consecutive season, the Hurricanes have advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division I Tennis Championships.
Miami (21-5) learned late Saturday night that its first opponent in the national tournament held in Athens, Ga., will be the third-ranked UCLA Bruins. As the fifth overall national seed in the 64-team tournament, UCLA (23-2) rolled past Sacramento State and Ole Miss to earn its spot in the NCAA Round of 16.
Hosting the NCAA First and Second Rounds for the 10th straight season, the Hurricanes eliminated Boston University 4-0 on Friday afternoon, setting up a regional final with 18th-ranked Oklahoma at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
The match was closer than the 4-0 final score might indicate—with the most crucial portion of the match taking place before singles play even began. Facing deficits on all three courts at one point , each doubles match see-sawed until Miami’s three doubles team pulled off an improbable comeback, winning the final seven games to even the match 1-1.
Despite the momentum boost from the Miami win on court three, seniors Melissa Bolivar and Brittany Dubins were still tasked with fighting off Sooners’ match point. With the ever-important doubles point at stake, and as teammates and spectators began to trickle over to court two, the seniors started their comeback.
Leading 6-5, Bolivar ripped a wicked forehand winner down the alley to give Miami a 1-0 lead. More importantly, the Hurricanes captured every ounce of momentum. Miami went on to win the opening sets in five of six singles matches and came away with its three singles wins by way of Lina Lileikite, Monique Albuquerque and Clementina Riobueno, securing the win.
“I think our intelligence level is a big reason why we’re winning,” head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said. “They absorb the information we give them, they are really coachable and they stay calm in tough situations. I think that our maturity is also a big reason—they’ve been here before, and I sense a real calmness among them.”
Miami continues on its postseason journey, where it will compete amongst the winners of each regional site in Athens. Only one team in the Sweet 16 field—Notre Dame—wasn’t one of the 16 national seeds chosen to host the first two rounds.
Yaroshuk-Tews compared this year’s squad to some of her past teams that were able to make deep runs into the NCAA tournament.
“In 2006 when we went to the finals, we started playing really good tennis this time of year. Two weeks before the tournament, everyone turned it on and peaked at the right time,” she said. “For the past week, all of the girls have showed up and played tremendous tennis.”
Competing against the nation’s elite teams isn’t unfamiliar for Yaroshuk-Tews and her Hurricanes. Miami has already played against eight of the other 15 teams in the NCAA Round of 16, and boasts wins in five of those matches (Vanderbilt, Clemson, Notre Dame, Virginia, Baylor).
“I’ve been saying all season how solid the ACC is, and we are so prepared by playing in this conference,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “The teams and coaches in this league force you to play better tennis. If you’re not on your toes, you’re going to be handed a loss no matter who you play. Having the strength of schedule we have, and the competition we play every week in conference really prepares all of us for the national tournament.”
When they arrive in Athens, the Hurricanes will have another difficult opponent in Pac-12 champions UCLA – ranked as the top team in the country for the majority of the season. Miami does have recent postseason success against the Bruins, having eliminated UCLA in the Sweet 16 in 2009 to advance to the Elite Eight.
“It’s going to take a great tennis match to beat UCLA,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “We played great against Oklahoma last weekend and UCLA is going to test us a little bit more. We can’t feel like we have to play perfect, but we have to play great. The expectations are very high on them every time they step on the court.
“All season long, I try to prepare them for moments like Thursday night.”
