Miami Tops No. 20 Wake for 10th-Straight Victory
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The University of Miami women’s tennis defeated No. 20 Wake Forest, 5-2, Friday evening to earn its 10th-consecutive win.
Buoyed by a quartet of three-set wins in singles and a stellar come-from-behind victory at No. 3 doubles, seventh-ranked Miami (14-4, 9-2 ACC) was able to withstand the cold, windy weather at Wake Forest Tennis Complex.
“I felt like we were just a little too up and down. I’ve got to give this team, Wake, a lot of credit. Wake puts a lot of tennis balls between the lines and they make you win points,” Miami head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said after her 299th career victory. “[Those were] . . . not easy conditions for us to play in and I just think, all in all, we did a great job of just staying calm and maybe not playing our best tennis, but staying focused and just doing enough to get the job done today.”
All three doubles matches came down to the wire, with the score 5-4 on each court at the same time. Miami took the first result, as the ninth-ranked pair of senior Stephanie Wagner and sophomore Wendy Zhang topped No. 45 Kimmy Guerin and Anna Ulyashchenko, 6-4.
Moments later, Wake Forest pulled even, as Samantha Asch and Emma Davis earned a 6-4 victory against Sinead Lohan and Ana Madcur.
With all eyes on court three, sophomore Silvia Fuentes and senior Clementina Riobueno completed a ferocious comeback from a 0-4 deficit, winning the final six games to take the match, 6-4, and give Miami the 1-0 advantage. The win also gave Riobueno, a 2014 ITA All-American, 90 doubles victories in her career, moving her into a tie with Jodi Applebaum for No. 10 all-time at Miami.
“We were giving away way too many free points at the beginning of that match and the other team was just simply making balls and we got off to a really slow start,” Yaroshuk-Tews said of Fuentes and Riobueno “I was happy to see that they kept their calm and they kept their cool. They just took it one point at a time and got themselves back in the match.”
In the lone straight-set singles match, Ulyashchenko defeated No. 61 Zhang, 6-2, 6-3, to even the score at 1-1.
In a top-50 matchup, fifth-ranked Wagner posted a comeback victory against No. 44 Guerin to give the lead back to the Hurricanes. For her 13th ranked win of the spring, including her seventh over a top-50 player, Wagner posted a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Soon after, freshman Clara Tanielian finished off her match against Asch, coming away with a 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 win. Wake Forest (17-7, 6-6 ACC) then pulled back within a point, as Joanna Zalewski picked up a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 triumph versus Fuentes.
With Madcur and seventh-ranked Lohan both a game away from clinching their respective matches and the win for Miami, it was the latter who sealed the deal. Lohan topped Davis, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, to officially seal Miami’s fifth top-25 win of the year. Minutes later, Madcur closed out her match against Fernandez, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, to end play for the day.
“I’m really happy with the freshmen, playing against two seniors down at five and six, playing out third-set matches,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “I don’t think they really needed to go three sets, but they pulled them out once they were there.”
This is the first time the Hurricanes have won 10-straight matches since doing so from Feb. 21, 2014, through March 23, 2014.
Miami will play its final ACC road match of the season against No. 37 NC State Saturday at 11 a.m. in Raleigh, N.C., as Yaroshuk-Tews seeks the 300th victory of her 15-year coaching career.
To keep up with the University of Miami women’s tennis team on Twitter, follow @CanesWTennis.
RESULTS
Doubles Competition
1. No. 9 Stephanie Wagner/Wendy Zhang (UM) def. No. 45 Kimmy Guerin/Anna Ulyashchenko (WF), 6-4
2. Samantha Asch/Emma Davis (WF) def. Sinead Lohan/Ana Madcur (UM), 6-4
3. Silvia Fuentes/Clementina Riobueno (UM) def. Luisa Fernandez/Andrea Retolaza (WF), 6-4
Singles Competition
1. No. 5 Stephanie Wagner (UM) def. No. 44 Kimmy Guerin (WF), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
2. No. 7 Sinead Lohan (UM) def. Emma Davis (WF), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
3. Anna Ulyashchenko (WF) def. No. 61 Wendy Zhang (UM), 6-2, 6-3
4. Joanna Zalewski (WF) def. Silvia Fuentes (UM), 2-6, 6-4, 6-1
5. Clara Tanielian (UM) def. Samantha Asch (WF), 6-1, 1-6, 6-2
6. Ana Madcur (UM) def. Luisa Fernandez (WF), 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
