Miami Hawk Talk News

Miami Tennis to Meet 12th-seeded Stanford in NCAA Tournament

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—The Miami tennis team, Mid-American Conference regular-season and tournament champions, have drawn 12th-seeded Stanford in the opening round of the 2013 NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament, the NCAA announced today.

The match will take place on Friday, May 10 at 2 p.m. PT at the Taube Family Tennis Center on campus. Rice and Pepperdine are the other two teams competing in Palo Alto, Calif., and will play at 11 a.m. that day. Winners meet on Saturday, May 11 at 1 p.m. PT.

The RedHawks (13-12, 7-1 MAC) are making their third appearance in the NCAA Tournament with both previous trips (2009 and 2010) coming at Northwestern.

Nimisha Mohan, a first-team All-MAC selection, holds a 23-11 overall record, including 15-9 in dual matches. She played No. 1 the second half of the season, posting a 7-5 mark at that position. She won the deciding match at the MAC Championship, winning 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 for the 4-3 decision. Her efforts won her all-tournament and Tournament Most Valuable Player honors.

Alix Thurman plays No. 2 for the RedHawks, holding a 22-12 overall record, including 11-4 at her current spot. She was a second-team All-MAC selection, posting a 5-3 mark in league play. Christiana Raymond, the No. 3 player, was undefeated in league play and has now won 10 straight singles matches. She earned all-tournament honors after winning both singles and one doubles match in Muncie.

The rest of the lineup features Christine Guerrazzi at No. 4, Ana Rajkovic at No. 5 and Ramona Costea in the six spot.

The doubles lineup features Rajkovic and Guerrazzi at No. 1, Thurman and Mohan at No. 2 and Raymond and Costea taking the three spot.

Stanford (16-4, 8-2 Pac-12) will be making its 32nd consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Cardinal won five of their last six matches overall while finishing tied for third place in the Pac-12.

The Cardinal is coming off a 4-3 loss to California back on April 19 in its most recent matchup, snapping a string of eight consecutive wins over the Golden Bears that also included a 6-1 home victory on March 2.

All seats are general admission. Single-day tickets are $7 (adult) and $5 (student/youth/senior). Tickets are available starting on Monday, May 6, either in person, by calling 1-800-STANFORD or visiting http://www.gostanford.com. Phone orders will be available at will call.

Miami Tennis Claims Fifth Straight MAC Championship

ROCKFORD, Ill.—Miami captured its fifth straight Mid-American Conference regular-season tennis championship Saturday with a 5-2 victory over Northern Illinois at tbe Boylan Courts. The RedHawks finished the conference schedule 7-1, two games ahead of Bowling Green and Akron.

Miami (11-12 overall) will look for its first tournament championship since 2010 next weekend when it takes the court in Muncie, Ind. The RedHawks open play Saturday morning at 10 a.m. against the winner of a quarterfinal match between No. 4 seed and host Ball State and fifth-seeded Western Michigan.

The RedHawks took the doubles point by winning two of three matches. Alix Thurman and Nimisha Mohan starting things with an 8-5 win at No. 2. After the Huskies captured the top doubles flight, Christiana Raymond and Ramona Costea put Miami up 1-0 with an 8-5 victory at No. 3.

Christine Guerrazzi took the No. 4 match 6-1, 6-3 for a 2-0 lead, then Raymond capped an undefeated MAC season with a 6-0, 6-2 victory at No. 3.

NIU (14-10, 0-8) cut into the lead with a victory at No. 1, but Costea sealed the championship-clinching victory with a 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 6.

The team split the final two matches with Ana Rajkovic winning at No. 5, 6-4, 7-5, before NIU took the No. 2 tie.

Miami had its 33-match regular-season conference winning streak snapped at the start of the year, but won seven straight after that.

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.