Jan. 13, 2010
LAS VEGAS - Players from eight of the elite college programs in the United States, including a full contingent from host UNLV, will gather in Las Vegas this weekend for the eighth 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 75, including a majority from the ITA's top 30: No. 8 Florida, No. 9 USC, No. 12 UCLA, No. 13 Stanford, No. 18 North Carolina, No. 30 Arizona State and No. 71 Oregon.
Host UNLV, ranked 41st nationally, will add seven singles players and four doubles teams to the field.
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.
A field of no less than 11 ranked individuals and two of the sport's top 25 doubles teams are scheduled to compete. UNLV's 44th-ranked Jana Albers and 50th-ranked senior star Kristina Nedeltcheva headline the host contingent.
Last year's event saw fifth-seeded Irini Falconi of Georgia Tech (currently the nation's top-ranked player) fight off USC's Sarah Fansler 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 in the singles championship. Fresno State's top-seeded team of Renata Kucerkova and Anastasia Petukhova got past UNC's Katrina Tsang and Shinann Featherston, 8-5, for the doubles crown.
In 2008, USC's Amanda Fink downed UNC'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.
2010 FREEMAN MEMORIAL TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSAt Fertitta Tennis Complex, Las Vegas, NVTEAM KEY & CURRENT NATIONAL ITA RANKING
Florida (UF) 8Southern California (USC) 9UCLA (UCLA) 12Stanford (STAN) 13North Carolina (UNC) 18Arizona State (ASU) 30UNLV 41Oregon (UO) 71
SINGLES SEEDING (NATIONAL RANK), SCHOOL1. Mallory Burdette (16), STAN2. Sanaz Marand (25), UNC3. Valeria Pulido (37), USC4. Jana Albers (44), UNLV5. Kristina Nedeltcheva (50), UNLV6. Kelcy McKenna (58), ASU7. Micaela Hein (68), ASU8. Carolyn McVeigh (78), STAN
OTHER RANKED SINGLES PLAYERSMarrit Boonstra (81), UFAnastasia Revzina (92), UFKatrina Tsang (100), UNC
DOUBLES SEEDING, SCHOOL1. Marand/Grabinski (6), UNC2. Valeria Pulido/Sarah Fansler, USC3. Katrina Tsang/Shinann Featherston (22), UNC4. Marrit Boonstra/Anastasia Revzina, UF
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
