Jan. 11, 2005
LAS VEGAS - Players from 10 of the elite college programs in the United States, including a strong contingent from host UNLV, will gather in Las Vegas this weekend for the third annual Freeman Memorial Women's Tennis Championships at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on campus.
Schools sending competitors include No. 1-ranked Stanford, No. 2 Florida, No. 4 UCLA, No. 7 Southern California, No. 13 Georgia, No. 17 California, No. 18 Tennessee, No. 36 South Carolina and No. 38 Arizona State. Host UNLV, ranked 46th nationally, will add six singles players and three doubles teams to the field.
Action begins at 9:30 a.m. PST on Friday and Saturday and the finals are scheduled for Sunday, with times to be determined. Admission to all matches is free.
The event features two flights each of both singles and doubles along with consolation rounds.
Five of the nation's top 21 players are scheduled to compete in singles: No. 3 Suzi Babos of Cal, No. 9 Riza Zalameda of UCLA, No. 10 Shadisha Robinson of Georgia, No. 20 Daniela Bercek of UCLA and from host UNLV, freshman sensation Elena Gantcheva, who is ranked 21st after posting a 14-1 fall tournament record.
The doubles field will include two of the top five duos in the nation: the third-ranked Florida team of Whitney Benik and Lolita Frangulyan, who won the season's first major title at the ITA Women's All-American Tournament back in October; and fifth-ranked Zalameda and Bercek of UCLA.
Also in the singles field is defending champion and 35th-ranked Theresa Logar of Stanford who downed third-seeded Aniela Mojzis of North Carolina 6-2, 6-1 in the final. In the 2004 doubles championship, Florida's second-seeded team of Boglarka Berecz and Nina Suvak got by Tennessee's Sabita Maharaj and Ashley Robards 8-4.
The 2003 event featured a preview of the NCAA Singles Championship as Tennessee's Vilmarie Castellvi downed Stanford's Amber Liu 6-3, 6-3 in the final. Four months later, Liu would upset Castellvi to win the national title. Castellvi and partner Melissa Schaub also won the doubles championship at the Freeman Memorial, which was known as the Collegiate Kickoff Classic in its first year.
