Women's NCAA Team Div.I Semi-finals
Texas A&M Women Enter 1st NCAA Finals, Beats No.7 UCLA; Stanford Upsets Defending Champs Florida
Stanford women to meet Texas A&M in finals. gostanford.com
aggieathletics.com: May 20 2013, Urbana, Illinois - The third-seeded Texas A&M women’s tennis team is heading to its first national championship final in school history after defeating seventh-seeded UCLA 4-3 on Monday night at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex.
Texas A&M came back from losing the doubles point and captured four of six singles points. After losing the doubles point, Texas A&M charged back in singles, winning five of six first sets. Texas A&M got wins from No. 4 Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar, No. 52 Nazari Urbina and Stefania Hristov, the Nos. 1 , 3 and 6 singles players, respectively.
Texas A&M got the clinching victory from Ines Deheza after she defeated Chanelle Van Nguyen at four singles in a marathon three-set match 6-3, 6-7(9), 6-4. Texas A&M moves on to the NCAA team final against No. 12 Stanford. The match is slated for Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET. Texas A&M is searching for its first championship in program history, while Stanford is going for its 17th team crown.
The second set came down to a marathon tiebreaker in which Deheza fought off several set points and had match point at 7-6 before eventually falling, 11-9. Deheza broke and then went up 2-0 to open the third set before Van Nguyen got on a roll and won four consecutive games to go up 4-2. Van Nguyen was up 40-love in the next game when Deheza rallied and won the game to get within 4-3. Deheza held serve to tie the set at 4-4, and continued a run of 10 straight points into the next game. Deheza was at game point when Van Nguyen began to cramp and was unable to serve in the allotted time frame and therefore was issued a point penalty, giving the game and a 5-4 lead to Deheza.
Deheza was up triple match point in the next game, and despite Van Nguyen hobbling in severe pain, the Bruin scored two points before Deheza clinched the historic win. The Bruins began the match by winning the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead. The 25th-ranked duo of Robin Anderson and Skyler Morton defeated A&M’s 18th-ranked Stefania Hristov and Cristina Stancu, 8-5 at the No. 1 line. Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips followed with a 9-7 victory over twins Ines and Paula Deheza at No. 3 to clinch the point for the Bruins, snapping the Deheza’s nine-match winning streak. It also marked the first time A&M had lost a doubles match in this year’s NCAA tournament. Fourth-ranked Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar began singles by pulling off the highest ranked win in her career and knotting the team score at 1-1 with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over third-ranked Anderson at the No. 1 line. UCLA went up 2-1, as Harrison defeated Anna Mamalat, 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 5 line, and the Bruins widened the margin to 3-1 as McPhillips came back to defeat Stancu, 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 2 court.
Hristov won a clutch tiebreaker at No. 6 en route to defeating Courtney Dolehide, 7-6 (5), 6-1 to put A&M within 3-2, and Aggie senior Nazari Urbina won her 101st career singles match with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Pamela Montez at No. 3 to tie the score at 3-3 and send all eyes to Deheza’s court.
Stanford Upsets Defending Champs Florida
gostanford.com: May 20, 2013, Urbana, Illinois - No. 12-seed Stanford continued its run of upsets by knocking off top-seeded and two-time defending national champion Florida 4-3 in the NCAA semifinal on Monday evening at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex. The Cardinal will advance to face third-seeded Texas A&M in the NCAA championship match on Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET.
Stanford got the crucial doubles point with 8-3 wins on both courts one and two. At No. 1 doubles, the eighth-ranked duo of Kristie Ahn and Nicole Gibbs topped 11th-ranked Lauren Embree and Sofie Oyen from Florida. On court two, No. 28 Stacey Tan and Ellen Tsay easily won to give Stanford an early 1-0 lead. Nicole Gibbs knocked off the top-ranked player in the country with ease, beating Embree 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. Gibbs has now knocked off both the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked players in the country in the tournament in straight sets, having beaten USC’s No. 2-ranked Sabrina Santamaria on Friday.
Stanford also got a straight-set win at No. 2 singles, where No. 25 Kristie Ahn topped No. 17 Sofie Oyen 6-1, 6-4. Florida bounced back with a straight-set win by No. 89 Brianna Morgan on court four 6-1, 6-3. The Gators also got three-set wins on courts five and six with No. 123 Olivia Janowicz winning on five 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 and No. 116 Caroline Hitimana on six 1-6, 6-1, 6-0. With the match tied at three, No. 14 Krista Hardebeck had enough gas in the tank to outlast No. 51 Alexandra Cercone of Florida for a 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-3 victory to send the Cardinal to the national championship.
Texas A&M 4; UCLA 3
Doubles
1.#25 Anderson/Morton (UCLA) def. #18 Stancu/Hristov (TAMU) 8-5; 2.#38 Dolehide/Montez (UCLA) vs. #49 Wen/Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU)7-4 Unf.; 3.Harrison/McPhillips (UCLA) def. Deheza/Deheza (TAMU) 9-7.
Singles
1.#4 Cristina Quintanar(TAMU) def.#3 Robin Anderson(UCLA)6-1, 6-3
2.#20 Kyle McPhillips (UCLA) def. #68 Cristina Stancu (TAMU)2-6, 6-0, 6-1
3.#52 Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. Pamela Montez (UCLA)6-4, 6-2
4.Ines Deheza (TAMU) def. Chanelle Van Nguyen (UCLA)6-3, 6-7(9), 6-4
5.#93 Catherine Harrison (UCLA) def. Anna Mamalat (TAMU)6-4, 6-2
6.Stefania Hristov (TAMU) def. Courtney Dolehide (UCLA)7-6 (5), 6-1
Stanford 4; Florida 3
Doubles
1.#8 Ahn/Gibbs (STAN) def. #11 Embree/Oyen (FLA)8-3
2.#28 Tan/Tsay (STAN) def. Cercone/Hitimana (FLA)8-3
3.Collins/Morgan (FLA) vs. Dillon/Hardebeck (STAN)6-3
Singles
1.#13 Nicole Gibbs (STAN) def. #1 Lauren Embree (FLA)6-0, 6-1
2.#25 Kristie Ahn (STAN) def. #17 Sofie Oyen (FLA) 6-1, 6-4
3.#14 Krista Hardebeck(STAN)def.#51 Alexandra Cercone(FLA)6-7 7-6 6-3
4.#89 Brianna Morgan (FLA) def. #103 Stacey Tan (STAN)6-1, 6-3
5.#123 Olivia Janowicz (FLA) def. #92 Ellen Tsay (STAN)6-2, 3-6, 6-4
6.#116 Caroline Hitimana (FLA) def. Natalie Dillon (STAN) 1-6, 6-1, 6-0
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