Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State Looks For Another Road Win in NCAA Tournament
5/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 19, 2004
ATHENS, Ga. - Perhaps the biggest question surrounding Fresno State's upcoming NCAA Tournament round of 16 match with sixth-seeded Georgia lies not with the visitors from across the country, but rather with the team from Athens, who will host Thursday's 3 p.m. PT match.
Specifically, which University of Georgia team will show up? Will it be the UGA squad which started 14-1 and climbed to No. 2 in the national rankings? Or will it be the one that limped into the NCAA Tournament with losses in two of their last three matches, including an upset defeat at the hands of No. 21 Kentucky in the first round of the SEC Tournament in April?
Though Georgia breezed through their first and second round matches with 4-0 victories over Samford and Georgia Tech, it is clear Fresno State has set its hopes on winning in only its second NCAA round of 16 match ever. And they will be forced to do so in what should be a hostile environment at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on UGA's campus.
The Bulldogs, currently 22-3, are riding high following their 4-3 upset win over 11th-seeded California on Sunday. The match was clinched at No. 6 singles, where Courtney Jantz overcame four match points - including a 5-2, love-40 deficit in the third - to defeat Jessica Shu 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
But Fresno State had little time to savor its landmark win. After taking Monday off, half of the team left for Georgia on Tuesday, while the other half - who stayed behind to take final exams - left early Wednesday morning and didn't arrive in Athens until 8 p.m. Eastern time.
"The win over Cal was great. There is no doubt it was as emotional a match as we played all year," head coach Simon Thibodeau said. "But this is NCAA Tournament time, and you don't have a lot of time to celebrate your wins before it's time to play another tough match. And we definitely will have a tough match against Georgia."
UGA enters 19-4 and is led by a strong top part of the lineup, featuring ninth-ranked Agata Cioroch at No. 1 singles, 32nd-ranked Shadisha Robinson at No. 2 and 54th-ranked Evgenia Subbotina at No. 3.
In fact, Georgia's singles lineup features five ranked players. Fresno State has only two.
"Georgia was ranked second for most of this season for a reason," Thibodeau said. "We have a very tough chore ahead of us, but this is a confident team who knows they have nothing to lose."
Large, passionate crowds are the norm come NCAA Tournament time at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, considered the Yankee Stadium of college tennis. The facility features a 5,000-seat stadium which is flanked by the College Tennis Hall of Fame. And given the 6 p.m. local start, the crowd should be at a fevered pitch to cheer on a team that went 10-0 at home this year.
Live scoring of each NCAA Tournament match will be available on Georgia's website, www.georgiadogs.com.
Following is a look at the probable matchups for tomorrow's contest:
No. 1 Singles
FS: #14 Jelena Pandzic (23-1, 23-1 dual)
UGA: #9 Agata Ciorich (23-8, 11-7 dual)
Pandzic is playing as well as she has all year, evidenced by her straight-set victory over top-ranked Raquel Kops-Jones on Sunday. Will she once again display her dominance over the nation's best?
No. 2 Singles
FS: #102 Lucia Tallo (22-10, 17-7 dual)
UGA: Shadisha Robinson (30-11, 11-7)
A freshman, Robinson has spent some of the season in the top 15, but she's only gone 8-5 at No. 2. Meanwhile, Tallo is coming off her best performance of the year in a 6-2, 6-1 shellacking of Jieun Jacobs of Cal.
No. 3 Singles
FS: Katharina Winterhalter (29-9, 19-5 dual)
UGA: # 54 Evgenia Subbotina (29-5, 15-3 dual)
Winterhalter has been as consistent as a metronome this season, but she has her work cut out for her with Subbotina, who has gone 11-0 at No. 3 this year.
No. 4 Singles
FS: Vlatka Jovanovic (16-15, 11-12 dual)
UGA: #108 Jitka Schonfeldova (21-8, 14-4 dual)
Schonfeldova has played at Nos. 2, 3 and 4 this year, but she sports an 8-1 record at No. 4. Meanwhile, Jovanovic is trying to put an end to a three-match losing streak.
No. 5 Singles
FS: Lucia Sainz (22-12, 15-8 dual)
UGA: #84 Natalie Frazier (24-10, 9-8 dual)
Frazier was moved down to No. 5 late in the season after faltering at No. 4. She has the fewest dual match wins on her team. Sainz, with 16 more wins this year than last, looks for one of the biggest wins of her young career.
No. 6 Singles
FS: Courtney Jantz (19-12, 15-9 dual)
UGA: Alexandra Smith (17-6, 14-3 dual)
Jantz is filled with confidence after her miraculous comeback against Cal, and she'll need that confidence against Smith, who has gone 9-3 at No. 6, including a perfect 9-0 record against SEC opponents.
No. 1 Doubles
FS: #27 Tallo/Pandzic (19-2, 19-2 dual)
UGA: Cioroch/Subbotina
Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace split up his top doubles team of No. 12 Cioroch/Robinson before the NCAA's. The jury is still out on that move, with UGA 0-1 thus far at No. 1 in the NCAA's. And if there are 26 doubles teams in the nation better than Tallo/Pandzic, we want to see who they are.
No. 2 Doubles
FS: Sainz/Winterhalter (23-7, 15-6 dual)
UGA: Robinson/Smith (1-1, 1-1 dual)
Another example of a team with experience (Sainz/Winterhalter) vs. a tandem who hasn't played together much (Robinson/Smith).
No. 3 Doubles
FS: Jantz/Jovanovic (12-5, 12-5 dual)
UGA: Schonfeldova/Wink
Jantz/Jovanovic are trying to shake off a tough stretch that has seen them lose three of five. Schonfeldova at No. 2 and Wink at No. 3 had impressive doubles records during the regular season, though not with each other.
