Bielik Advances to Quarterfinals of NCAA Championships
5/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 23, 2001
Stone Mountain, Ga. - Wake Forest women's tennis player Bea Bielik (Valley Stream, N.Y.) won two matches today to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championships, held at Lincoln Tennis Center. Bielik, a sophomore, has already improved upon her NCAA performance from a year ago, as she advanced to the round of 16 in 2000.
In her first match on Wednesday, Bielik won 7-6, 6-4 over California's Raquel Kops-Jones. She returned to the court in the afternoon, easily handling Claire Carter of Washington with a 6-4, 6-0 victory in the round of 16.
"I came out this morning and got off to a pretty tough start, going down a break," Bielik said. "But I fought my way back and luckily was able to keep it up mentally. In the second match, everything seemed to click. I was able to get my rhythm, my timing, my serve was there and I was able to put it all together."
Bielik's quarterfinal opponent is second-seeded Ansley Cargill, a freshman from Duke. Bielik and Cargill shared ACC flight champion honors at No. 1 singles this year, and Cargill owns a 1-0 lead against Bielik after winning a three-set match during the regular season.
"I just need to stay in there mentally from point one to the last point," said Bielik of her upcoming quarterfinal match. "That will be the key to tomorrow. There's nothing tactical, nothing strategic. I just have to concentrate the whole way through."
The quarterfinal match between Bielik and Cargill takes place at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday.
Bielik has also teamed up with Deacon junior Janet Bergman in the NCAA Doubles Championships. The duo, seeded alphabetically in the 5-8 group, have advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Krista Manning and Heather Polumbus of UC-San Diego in a second-round match on Wednesday afternoon. Wake Forest will face fourth-seeded Whitney Laiho and Jessice Lehnhoff of Florida in a 1:00 p.m. quarterfinal match on Thursday. The Bergman/Bielik tandem also advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championships a year ago.
Bielik, along with Stanford's Laura Granville and Lauren Kalvaria and Ohio State's Kristy Dascoli, are the only four participants who are still competing in both singles and doubles.