NCAA Women's Matches Tighten Up in Athens
©Colette Lewis 2007--
Athens, GA--
Because the top 16 women's teams advanced to Athens with little difficulty, I was expecting today's third round to be more of the same--no upsets, lots of 4-0 scores. Boy, was I wrong.
It wasn't noon when the sun-splashed day's first upset came--UCLA's (12) shutout of favored Northwestern (5). Stanford (1) rolled as expected, making short work of Vanderbilt (16), but the other 4-0 result, California's (10) late-night upending of Clemson (7), did not go as the seeding committee envisioned it. Florida (4) rode their win in the doubles point and their strength at the bottom of the lineup to a 4-2 win over Baylor (13), and after watching the end of that match, I settled in for the Miami (9) and USC (8) contest on the back courts at the Magill Tennis Center. Mostly I was interested in watching the No. 1 singles matchup of Audra Cohen and Lindsey Nelson, two of the best players in college tennis, and favorites for the individual title next week.
Miami barely hung on for the doubles point, when Cohen and her partner Laura Vallverdu won a tiebreak after squandering a 7-2 lead at No. 1.
Hours later, Miami still had just that one point, with USC having taken points at the bottom three singles. The top-ranked Cohen had kept her team alive by forcing a third set against Nelson in a match that featured a little bit of everything. Cohen inadvertently hit Nelson while returning a ball to her, costing her a point, and inciting the already raucous USC fans to ramp up the volume in her direction. Cohen complained to the umpire that the comments were getting personal, and an official and the USC coach both made visits to the area where the Trojan supporters were sitting, resulting in more positive comments, but no fewer of them.
"It was just one person," said Cohen, of the heckler. "Once I got over it, decided to shut up and play, the match turned my way."
Calling for a trainer after losing both her cool and an early break in the second set, Cohen spoke to her coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews during the treatment to her wrist, and regaining her composure, began to play more agressively. She broke Nelson at 5-5 and held, giving each woman a 7-5 set.
In the meantime, it was looking increasingly bleak for Miami. Vallverdu was trailing Sarah Fansler 5-2 in the final set at the No. 2 position, while Amanda Fink and Miami's Audrey Banada were late in the third set of their match. While Vallverdu began her comeback, Banada closed out Fink to make it 3-2 USC, and Vallerdu sent it back to Cohen by winning the final five games.
By this time Cohen was up 4-2 on Nelson, and she didn't falter after all the work her teammates had done to put her in position to win. Nelson's two-handed strokes began finding the tape instead of the lines as they had in the first two sets, and Cohen made almost no errors in the match's final three games. As Cohen celebrated with her teammates, Nelson broke down in tears, and sat in her courtside chair surrounded by disappointed teammates trying to console her.
As dramatic as the USC-Miami match was, the Notre Dame(6)-North Carolina(11) one that followed on those courts nearly equaled it. UNC won the doubles point and took a 3-2 lead with wins at No. 4 and No. 1, but Notre Dame's Brook Buck came back from a third set deficit to defeat Sanaz Marand to even the match, and Christina Thompson finished off Katrina Tsang at No. 2 singles 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to put the Irish into Sunday's quarterfinals. They will meet Georgia Tech (3), who escaped with a 4-2 win over Fresno State (14). Cal's opponent on Sunday will be Georgia, who topped William and Mary 4-1. In the top half, Stanford and Miami will tangle, with Florida and UCLA the remaining quarterfinalists.
For complete scores and results, visit georgiadogs.com.
Also, the current Inside Junior Tennis podcast, where Kevin and I catch up on last week's junior news, has been posted.
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