Jan. 13, 2009
LAS VEGAS - Players from 11 of the elite college programs in the United States, including the defending NCAA singles champion and a full contingent from host UNLV, will gather in Las Vegas this weekend for the seventh 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 55, including a majority of the ITA's top 10: defending national champ and third-ranked UCLA, No. 4 Baylor, No. 5 Stanford, No. 7 Florida, No. 8 Georgia Tech, No. 10 USC, No. 15 Fresno State, No. 18 North Carolina, No. 21 Arizona State and No. 55 Oregon.
Host UNLV, ranked 39th nationally, will add six singles players and three doubles teams to the field.
"We are thrilled to again be hosting the Freeman Memorial," said UNLV head coach Kevin Cory. "We have a field that includes the defending NCAA team and singles champion so we are looking forward to some great tennis this weekend."
Action begins with doubles each day at 10 a.m. PST on Friday and Saturday with the finals scheduled for Sunday. Admission to all matches is free. The event features two flights each of both singles and doubles along with consolation rounds.
An unprecedented field of no less than 13 ranked individuals, including nine in this week's national top 50, is scheduled to compete in singles. No. 11-ranked Amanda McDowell of Georgia Tech won the 2008 NCAA singles title but is seeded second at the Freeman behind Arizona State's third-ranked Kelcy McKenna.
Also, four of the sport's top 12 doubles teams are in town, led by second-ranked Renata Kucerkova and Anastasia Petukohova of Fresno State and No. 3 Lenka Broosova and Csilla Borsanyi of Baylor. UNLV junior Kristina Nedeltcheva headlines the host contingent in both singles and doubles.
Last year's event saw USC's Amanda Fink down North Carolina's Katrina Tsang 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 for the top-flight singles championship while Stanford's Jessica Nguyen teamed with Whitney Deason to win the doubles crown 8-2 over UNC's Tsang and Austin Smith.
The 2007 Freeman 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 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.
2009 FREEMAN MEMORIAL TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSAt Fertitta Tennis Complex, Las Vegas, NVTEAM KEY & CURRENT NATIONAL ITA RANKING
UCLA (UCLA) 3Baylor (BU) 4Stanford (STAN) 5Florida (UF) 7Georgia Tech (GT) 8Southern California (USC) 10Fresno State (FS) 15North Carolina (UNC) 18Arizona State (ASU) 21UNLV 39Oregon (UO) 55
SINGLES SEEDING (NATIONAL RANK), SCHOOL1. Kelcy McKenna (3), ASU2. Amanda McDowell (11), GT3. Melanie Gloria (17), FS4. Taylor Ormond (19), BU5. Trina Falconi (23), GT6. Anastasia Petukhova (29), FS7. Csilla Borsanyi (32), BU8. Marit Boonstra (34), UF
OTHER RANKED SINGLES PLAYERSSarah Fansler (38), USCJelena Stanikuk (65), BUShinann Featherston (83), UNCAnastasia Revzina (99), UFCarmen Seremeta (107), UO
DOUBLES SEEDING, SCHOOL1. Renata Kucerkova/Anastasia Petukohva (2), FS2. Lenka Broosova/Csilla Borsanyi (3), BU3. Amanda McDowell/Trina Falconi (5) GT4. Katrina Tsang/Shinann Featherston (12), UNC
OTHER RANKED DOUBLES TEAMSMelanie Gloria/Tinesta Rowe (23), FSSasha Krupina/Christina Ngo (46), GT
SCHEDULE OF PLAYFridayDoubles 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 10:00 a.m.Doubles Final FollowSingles Final Follow
