Draws Announced for NCAA Singles Championship
TULSA, Okla. – The official draws for the 2016 NCAA Singles Championship were released Tuesday morning.
Sophomore Sinead Lohan and senior Stephanie Wagner of the University of Miami will open play Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET and 3:30 p.m. ET, respectively, at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the University of Tulsa campus. Both players will take on top-25 opponents in the Round of 64.
Lohan, ranked and seeded eighth, will take on unseeded and 19th-ranked Brienne Minor of Michigan. The Waterford, Ireland, native also played Minor in her most recent match, posting a 6-3, 6-2 win in the NCAA Team Championship Sweet 16.
After reaching the NCAA Singles Championship quarterfinals last year, Lohan is 36-5 in 2015-16, including 19-5 against ranked players and 25-1 this spring. A First Team All-ACC honoree, she is 21-0 in her last 23 outings and is the first Hurricane to earn a top-eight seed since Bianca Eichkorn in 2011.
Wagner, ranked ninth and seeded No. 9-16, is set to square off against unseeded and 24th-ranked Saska Gavrilovska of Texas A&M. The two played each other in the NCAA Singles Championship Sweet 16 last year, with Wagner earning a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory.
The winningest singles player in program history with 134 victories, Wagner is 35-12 this year, including 20-11 against ranked opponents and 22-6 in spring matches. The First Team All-ACC selection from Amberg, Germany, reached the semifinals in last year’s tournament, becoming the seventh Hurricane to do so.
Meanwhile, Gavrilovska will become just the second player to face the same Hurricane in back-to-back NCAA Singles Championships. USC’s Lindsey Nelson beat Audra Cohen in the 2006 Sweet 16 and lost to her in the 2007 title match. Gavrilovska will also be the 11th person to face a Hurricane multiple times in the tournament, including the ninth to do so in separate years.
This is the first time since 1987 Miami has multiple seeded players in the NCAA Singles Championship. Additionally, as seeded players, both Lohan and Wagner have clinched ITA All-America honors in singles for the second consecutive year.
Miami’s doubles pair of Wagner and sophomore Wendy Zhang, together ranked No. 12 in the nation, withdrew from the NCAA Doubles Championship and will not participate.
All NCAA Championships information is available HERE. Live stats and live video links can be found HERE and the NCAA Singles Championship bracket is available HERE.
To learn more about University of Miami women’s tennis, follow @CanesWTennis.
