Jan. 9, 2007
LAS VEGAS - Players from eight 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 fifth annual Freeman Memorial Women's Tennis Championships at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on campus.
All individual competitors come from teams ranked in the nation's top 50: No. 1-ranked Stanford, No. 2 Florida, No. 4 Notre Dame, No. 7 Georgia Tech, No. 15 UCLA, No. 23 Arizona State and No. 42 Oregon.
Host UNLV, ranked 48th nationally, will add five singles players and two doubles teams to the field.
Weather permitting, 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 40 players, including three in the top 15, are scheduled to compete in singles: No. 8 Jessica Nguyen and No. 13 Celia Durkin of Stanford and No. 15 Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech.
The doubles field will feature three top-30 teams, including Las Vegas natives Catrina and Christian Thompson of Notre Dame. Currently ranked 11th nationally and seeded second at the Freeman, the twins are graduates of Bishop Gorman High School and were the first Notre Dame duo in history to be ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Last year, top-ranked Stanford's Celia Durkin easily downed UCLA's Laura Gordon 6-2, 6-0 to win the top-flight singles title while in doubles, top-seeded Alice Barnes and Anne Yelsey worked overtime to get by second-seeded Kady Pooler and Roxanne Clarke of Arizona State 9-7 to also give the Cardinal the doubles crown.
In 2005, Georgia's Shadisha Robinson, ranked 10th, handed freshman Lejla Hodzik of Stanford her first collegiate loss, 6-3, 6-4, to take home the singles title. In doubles play, UCLA's fifth-ranked duo of Daniela Bercek and Riza Zalameda won the crown by doubling up 41st-ranked Hodzic Whitney Deason of Stanford 8-4.
In 2004, Theresa Logar of Stanford downed Aniela Mojzis of North Carolina 6-2, 6-1 in the top-flight final. The doubles championship went to Florida's Boglarka Berecz and Nina Suvak, who 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.
2007 FREEMAN MEMORIAL TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSAt Fertitta Tennis Complex, Las Vegas, NV
TEAM KEY & CURRENT NATIONAL ITA RANKINGStanford (STAN) 1Florida (UF) 2Notre Dame (ND) 4Georgia Tech (GT) 7UCLA (UCLA) 15Arizona State (ASU) 23Oregon (UO) 42UNLV (UNLV) 48
SINGLES SEEDING, SCHOOL1. Jessica Nguyen, STAN2. Celia Durkin, STAN3. Kristi Miller, GT4. Theresa Logar, STANALPHABETICAL5-8. Lindsay Burdette, STAN5-8. Elena Gantcheva, UNLV5-8. Ashley Joelson, UCLA5-8. Anne Yelsey, STAN
DOUBLES SEEDING, SCHOOL1. Kady Pooler/Roxanne Clarke, ASU2. Catrina Thompson/Christian Thompson, ND3. Dominika Dieskova /Anna Cecilia Olivos, UO4. Anne Yelsey/Celia Durken, STAN
SCHEDULE OF PLAY - WEATHER PERMITTING!FridayDoubles Round of 16 9:30 a.m.Singles Round of 32 FollowSingles Round of 16 Follow
SaturdayDoubles Quarterfinals 9:30 a.m.Singles Quarterfinals FollowSingles Semifinals Follow
SundayDoubles Semifinals TBADoubles Final FollowSingles Final Follow
