Miami Hawk Talk News

Tennis Goes for a Title

This weekend Miami's tennis team competes in the Mid Amercian Conference women's tennis championships in an attempt to win its first MAC tournament title since 1998. The RedHawks come into the tournament in a strong position, finishing the MAC regular season with a 7-1 record (its best record since 1999) and a second place finish. Overall, Miami finished the regular season with a record of 13-6, which included non-conference wins versus Dayton, Cincinnati, and Xavier (all by 7-0 scores). Miami has not played many close matches this season - only one ended with a 4-3 score (a loss at Maryland) and 15 ended with final scores of 7-0 or 6-1.

In singles play, Miami has been led by freshman Anastasia Dracheva (11-3 in the number one slot), sophomore Brintney Larson (13-6, mostly from the number two slot), freshman Megan Martzolf (10-4), senior Kelly Douple (14-5, including 8-0 in the MAC), and senior Leda Pesatova (12-6). Overall, Miami is 79-35 in singles play, including 38-10 (.792) in the MAC. Many different players and combinations led Miami to a 34-23 doubles record, but the standout combination was Leda Pesatova and Sydnee Bridger, who ended the season with a record of 11-4, including 6-2 in the MAC.

The MAC tournament begins Friday as Miami plays seventh seeded Ball State (8-10, 1-6) at 2pm. If Miami wins, they would play either #3 Toledo or #6 Buffalo at 2pm on Saturday. The tournament finals will be held on Sunday at noon with top seeded Western Michigan (14-7, 7-0) looming on the other side of the bracket.

Congratulations to the Miami tennis team on its outstanding season and good luck at the MAC tournament!

Tennis Rolls On

Over the last three weeks, no Miami team has been as successful as the tennis team. After starting the season with a 6-1 loss at #25 Indiana, Miami has won six straight matches, in the process losing only two games over that period. With five 7-0 sweeps over the win streak, Miami has gone 42-2 in its six wins. The six win streak includes 7-0 sweeps of local rivals Dayton, Cincinnati, and Xavier.

Every Miami singles player has a winning record, with the team paced by freshman Anastasia Dracheva (6-0 in number one singles), sophomore Brintney Larson (7-1 in total, 2-0 at #1 and 5-1 in #2), and freshman Cara Wald (7-1 in total, 3-0 at #5 and 4-1 at #6). Overall, Miami's freshman have posted a record of 21-3 thus far this season. In doubles, Miami's team record is 19-5. The team of Brintney Larson and Cara Wald has a total record of 6-2 while handling most of the #1 doubles matches and the team of Anastasia Dracheva and freshman Megan Martzolf has a record of 5-1 primarily at the #2 double slot.

Next up for tennis is a match in Huntington, WV versus Marshall on Saturday. This is the first of nine straight road contests for the RedHawks; highlights of the upcoming schedule include matches at Maryland on March 1 and at Wisconsin on March 15. The MAC schedule begins with a match at Ball State on March 22 while the next home match is on April 11 versus Bowling Green.

RedHawks improve to 2-1 on the season

With a 7-0 win at Butler over the weekend, the RedHawks tennis squad boosted their record to 2-1 on the young season, having already posted a loss against Indiana and a win against Cincinnati. Miami had three straight-set singles wins and three third-set tiebreakers to sweep the singles points, and the RedHawks won doubles two matches to one to get the doubles point. Miami is in action again on Saturday at Purdue.

More at MURedHawks.com.

Because Any Season is a Good Time to Beat UC . . .

. . . the Miami women’s tennis team did just that over the weekend.