WOMEN'S TENNIS: Huskies' season likely over after Pac-10 disappointment
April 30, 2007
Despite winning its last two dual matches and putting up a valiant effort in this weekend's Pac-10 championships in Ojai, Calif., the Washington women's tennis team has probably reached the end of its season.
Although they went from being unranked to being the No. 65 team in the nation in the last week of the regular season, the women were unable to keep that momentum going in this weekend's events and will probably not be invited to participate in the 64-team NCAA championships when teams are announced Tuesday.
This weekend was disappointing for the Huskies, as they were unable to claim a victory on any singles or doubles courts. In both the Pac-10 and the invitational singles draws, the Huskies took only one set, when freshman Aleksandra Malovic pushed her opponent to a third but was defeated 6-1, 5-7, 6-0. The other two entries in the championship draw, Joyce Ardies and Mathilde Cor, were defeated in straight sets.
The second day of play looked to be more promising for the Huskies as doubles action began. Ardies and Cor teamed up as the lone Husky pairing in the Pac-10 Championship draw and lost a tough first-round match 8-5 to Stanford's Lindsay Burdette and Anne Yelsey, the No. 21 doubles team in the country.
In the invitational bracket, the UW's Tara Simpson and Melinda Wong were the top seeds and received a first-round bye into the quarterfinals. In their first match, however, they fell 8-4 to Cal's Daron Moore and Cristina Visico.
The third and final Husky doubles team, Malovic and Allison Rainey, lost in the first round of the invitational draw to Cal's Bojana Bobusic and Claire Ilcinkas, the eventual champions.
New champions crowned in the Pac-10 draws were Stanford's Lindsey Nelson in singles and Yasmin Schnack and Riza Zalameda from UCLA in doubles. Nelson was able to avenge her finals loss against Cal's Susie Babos last year by beating the reigning NCAA champion 6-2, 6-2.
Despite its hardships, the UW women's team has reason to be optimistic for next season. With no seniors on the team, the Huskies are hoping that next season's lineup will live up to its full potential.
"I hear the girls talking about next year already," coach Jill Hultquist said. "They see the future of Washington tennis."
Reach reporter Risa Pavia at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.
Comments
Post a comment
You are not currently logged in. You must log in using your Facebook account to post a comment. It's fast, easy, and we don't store any of your personal information, except your first and last name when you post a comment.
Why?
Our old comment system was abused to leave racist, sexist, fradulent, or simply useless comments. We're hoping this verification step will improve the quality of our comments.
I don't have a Facebook account. I'd like to verify my identity using my MySpace/Google/Yahoo!/OpenID/SSN/주민등록번호/MasterCard.
Let us know. We're open to suggestions. Over the next few weeks, we'll be testing other authentication methods.
The FBI/CIA/TSA/CoS/Emmert is out to get me! I need to stay anonymous!
We're working on a way to allow this. If you have any ideas, email us.
I think this website is ugly.
It's going to be a work in progress all summer, so it may look and act differently from week to week. If you want to influence this process, email us. We read every email, and respond to most of them.