Jan. 9, 2008
LAS VEGAS - Players from nine 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 sixth 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 Georgia Tech, No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 Florida, No. 8 USC, No. 12 North Carolina, No. 19 Arizona State and No. 45 Oregon.
Host UNLV, ranked 43rd nationally, will add seven singles players and three doubles teams to the field.
Weather permitting, action begins at 10 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.
No less than 13 ranked individuals, including nine in this week's national top 50, are scheduled to compete in singles. Third-ranked Amanda McDowell and seventh-ranked Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech lead the singles field while ASU's 11th-ranked duo of Laila Abdala and Nadia Abdala top the doubles group. UNLV's senior standout, 30th-ranked Elena Gantcheva, will lead the host contingent in both singles and doubles.
Last year's event was severely limited by unusually frigid Las Vegas temperatures and no champions were crowned after completing just one round each of singles and doubles.
In 2006, Celia Durkin of top-ranked Stanford 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.
2008 FREEMAN MEMORIAL TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSAt Fertitta Tennis Complex, Las Vegas, NV
TEAM KEY & CURRENT NATIONAL ITA RANKINGGeorgia Tech (GT) 1Stanford (STAN) 2UCLA 3Florida (UF) 4Southern California (USC) 8North Carolina (UNC) 12Arizona State (ASU) 19UNLV 43Oregon (UO) 45
SINGLES SEEDING (NATIONAL RANK), SCHOOL1. Amanda McDowell (3), GT2. Kristi Miller (7), GT3. Jessica Nguyen (21), STAN4. Whitney McCray (22), GT5. Yasmin Schnack (28), UCLA6. Elena Gantcheva (30), UNLV7. Megan Alexander (37), UF8. Nadia Abdala (42), ASUOTHER RANKED PLAYERSNastia Revzina (50), UFAmanda Fink (51), USCCsilla Borsanyi (59), UFAustin Smith (72), UNCKelcy McKenna (93), ASU
DOUBLES SEEDING, SCHOOL1. Nadia Abdala/Laila Abdala, ASU2. Kristi Miller/Kirsten Flower, GT3. Elena Gantcheva/Kristina Nedeltcheva, UNLV4. Megan Alexander/Csilla Borsanyi, UF
SCHEDULE OF PLAY - WEATHER PERMITTING!FridayDoubles Round of 16 10:00 a.m.Singles Round of 32 FollowSingles Round of 16 Follow
SaturdayDoubles Quarterfinals 10:00 a.m.Singles Quarterfinals FollowSingles Semifinals Follow
SundayDoubles Semifinals TBADoubles Final FollowSingles Final Follow
