Razorbacks rebound on day two
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 19 Razorback women’s tennis team rebounded well on the second day of play at the ITA National Indoors Championships. After dropping their opening match to top-ranked Stanford on Friday, Arkansas defeated No. 18 Washington by their own 4-0 score on Saturday night at the Boar’s Head Sports Club and gain their eighth win of the season and second straight over Washington in two years.
Arkansas (8-2), who had struggled to win the doubles point in four previous dual-matches, broke that trend on Saturday to take the early lead into singles against Washington (7-3) and then go on to win three straight singles matches at the four, five and six positions for the shutout victory.
“This is such a tough tournament,” said Arkansas head coach Michael Hegarty. “We’ve always had good matches here at this tournament and this is the first time we’ve come through with a win since I’ve been here. The kids did a phenomenal job tonight. It was a much closer match than the 4-0 scoreline indicated because the remaining three matches had the chance to go the distance if they were required. From that perspective, we played really good doubles against a Washington team, who is always good at doubles. We’re excited to advance to tomorrow and face a Cal-Berkley team, who are another top five team.”
Starting the match off in doubles, the Razorbacks looked like there was no carry over from the first day’s match, winning quickly on court two, an 8-3 victory for juniors Kate Lukomskaya and Stephanie Roy over Samantha Smith and Adrijanan Pavlovic. That win gives the Hogs No. 2 doubles team their third win of the year together.
Washington would respond back at the No. 1 spot with a close 8-5 win, but Arkansas would prevail in the end as the doubles team of freshman Jade Frampton and sophomore Valentina Starkova defeated Aleksandra Krsljanin and Andjela Nemcevic, 8-5 for their tenth win overall this year. The final win at court three gave Arkansas their first doubles point win since the match against No. 31 Oklahoma in early February, going four straight matches having to play behind in singles.
Now that Arkansas had the early 1-0 lead going into singles, it seemed that the Razorbacks had an enormous weight lifted off of them and it showed on courts four, five and six. The Hogs won three straight matches at those positions, all in straight sets to easily finish off the Huskies in top style. Frampton would be the first to finish at court six, defeating Pavlovic, 6-3, 6-0. Junior Emily Carbone quickly followed, 6-3, 6-4 over Nemcevic and then Roy would complete the sweep after beating Krsljanin, 6-2, 6-2.
Arkansas will finish the final day of play at the ITA Indoors on Sunday night when they take on another top-five foe in the Cal Bears. Cal is coming off a first day loss to Northwestern, 4-1, but did bounce back as well on day two to defeat Georgia Tech, also by a score of 4-1. With Sunday’s match, this will be the third top-five matchup for the Hogs this season. The previous two came against No. 1 Stanford on Friday and No. 4 Notre Dame on Jan. 30 in the ITA Kickoff.
The match is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. and will continue to be played at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. The live blog will be available as well as the live stats provided on our live stats page. For all information regarding the Razorback women’s tennis team, log on ArkansasRazorbacks.com. ITA National Indoors Championship Day 2 (Consolation)No. 18 Washington 0No. 19 Arkansas 4Complete Doubles ResultsOrder of Finish: 2, 1, 3*No. 1 #9 Venise Chan/Denise Dy (WASH) def. #37 Anouk Tigu/ Claudine Paulson (ARK) 8-5No. 2 Kate Lukomskaya/Stephanie Roy (ARK) def. Samantha Smith/Adrijanan Pavlovic (WASH) 8-3No. 3 Jade Frampton/Valentina Starkova (ARK) def. Aleksandra Krsljanin/Andjela Nemcevic (WASH) 8-5Complete Singles ResultsOrder of Finish: 6, 4, 5*No. 1 #16 Anouk Tigu (ARK) leading #6 Denise Dy (WASH) 6-5No. 2 #26 Venise Chan (WASH) leading Kate Lukomskaya (ARK) 7-5No. 3 Samantha Smith (WASH) leading Claudine Paulson (ARK) 6-2No. 4 Emily Carbone (ARK) def. Andjela Nemcevic (WASH) 6-2, 6-4No. 5 Stephanie Roy (ARK) def. Aleksandra Krsljanin (WASH) 6-2, 6-2No. 6 Jade Frampton (ARK) def. Adrijanan Pavlovic (WASH) 6-3, 6-0
Download: WTI_Consi_Draw_2011.pdf
