W. Tennis Earns Four Spots in NCAA Individual Championships
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Two members of the University of Miami women’s tennis team will compete in the upcoming NCAA Singles Championship, while two pairs will take part in the NCAA Doubles Championship, as announced Tuesday evening.
Fifth-year senior Estela Perez-Somarriba garnered the second overall seed in the singles tournament, while freshman Isabella Pfennig earned a No. 9-16 seed. The duo will also compete together in the doubles tournament, as will second-year freshmen Diana Khodan and Maya Tahan.
Miami is one of 12 teams with multiple singles players in the field and one of seven—all of which are in the ACC—with two doubles pairs. The only six programs on both lists are Miami, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, NC State and Virginia.
Perez-Somarriba, who claimed the national title in 2019, is set to become the sixth Hurricane to play in the NCAA Singles Championship four times. In addition, she is just the 11th player in history to be a top-two seed in the field on multiple occasions and the sixth to be a top-three seed three times, as she held the No. 1 spot in 2019 and the No. 3 position in 2018.
Pfennig is one of just four true freshmen in the nation to receive a seed in the NCAA Singles Championship, alongside Syracuse’s Viktoria Kanapatskaya, Virginia’s Emma Navarro and Iowa’s Alexa Noel. She will be the 28th Miami player to compete in the event, including the first freshman since Perez-Somarriba in 2017.
By earning seeds in the tournament, both Perez-Somarriba and Pfennig have clinched ITA All-America status. For Perez-Somarriba, it is her fifth such honor, tied for third-most in program history. Miami, Georgia Tech and Virginia are the only teams with multiple seeded players.
This is the 18th straight year Miami will have at least one player in the NCAA Singles Championship, a streak that dates back to 2003, head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews’ second season at the helm. It is the 10th time during that span that two Hurricanes have made the cut and the second time in that frame Miami has multiple seeded players, alongside the 2016 campaign.
Additionally, this is the seventh time a Hurricane has received a top-two seed in singles and the 10th time one has logged a top-three seed. Those marks are both tied for the second-most by any team in NCAA history, alongside Texas in the first category and Florida in the second.
In doubles, Perez-Somarriba and Pfennig are ranked No. 25 in the country and sport a 9-6 record together. They teamed up to take down four top-25 duos during the season.
Khodan and Tahan, meanwhile, are ranked No. 14 nationally in doubles. They have a 10-7 mark on the season, their first full one at the collegiate level, and defeated three top-10 pairs.
This is the ninth time in program history Miami will have two duos compete in the NCAA Doubles Championship, including the first since 2007 and the second since 1992. The four doubles players will become the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Hurricanes to compete in the field, as well as the 29th and 30th unique pairs.
The 64-player singles tournament is set for May 23-28 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., while the 32-pair doubles tournament will be held May 24-28 at the same location.
Tournament brackets will be announced one day before competition starts. To see the complete lists of selections, click HERE.
To keep up with the University of Miami women’s tennis team on social media, follow @CanesWTennis on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
