2002-03 Season Review

May 1, 2003

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The Demon Deacons started off the year with a successful fall, playing in three tournaments and enjoying some success individually. With a five-person roster boasting no seniors, Wake Forest was led by Karin Coetzee, who posted an 11-1 mark in singles and went 5-5 in doubles play with partner Aimee Smith.

Coetzee won her flights at both the William & Mary Invitational and the Deacon Classic. She advanced to the quarterfinals of the Southeast Region Championships before suffering her only loss of the fall. In doubles, Coetzee and Smith upset No. 29 Michaela Havelkova and Valerie Vladea from Minnesota at the William & Mary Invitational, went 3-1 at the Deacon Classic and advanced to the Round of 16 at the Southeast Regional Championships.

Smith went 6-4 in fall singles play, Katie Martzolf 8-3, Elizabeth Proctor 6-3 and Danielle Schwartz went 4-5. The doubles team of Martzolf and Schwartz quietly got off to an impressive start with a 7-2 record in the fall. The Demon Deacon duo advanced to the finals of the William & Mary Invitational and the Deacon Classic and then made it to the Round of 16 at the Southeast Regional Championships.

Just days before the beginning of the second semester and a mere three weeks before the opening match, freshman Sandie Knight stepped off a plane, ending a complete 24 hours of traveling from her home in Adamstown, Australia. Enrollment, adjusting to college, adjusting to a new country and adjusting from the blazing 100 degree temperatures of the summer season she left in Australia to the freezing cold temperatures of one of the worst winters in North Carolina's recent history all paled in comparison to the adjustment to NCAA Division IA tennis and the pressure of completing the Demon Deacon squad as the sixth teammate.

Playing an extremely tough schedule in the spring that boasted all but five opponents nationally ranked (21 of 26), 14 of which that were top 30 teams, Wake Forest suffered through its worst season in the program's history, finishing the year 4-22 and 1-8 in the ACC for eighth place. The Demon Deacons stumbled in their opener against Yale at home and then bounced back to beat No. 47 Indiana before heading to Madison, Wisc., to play in the ITA National Indoor Team Championships. Three straight loses there to No. 3 Georgia, No. 14 Northwestern and No. 59 Tulsa, were just the beginning of what turned into a 17-match losing streak that was stopped with back-to-back home wins over Richmond and NC State. Wake Forest dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker at Maryland in the regular season finale, but then got revenge four days later with a 4-1 victory over the then-ranked 73rd Terrapins in the first round of the ACC Tournament. In the quarterfinals, the Demon Deacons went down swinging to the two seed, No. 16 Clemson, in a down to the wire five-and-a-half hour slugfest.

"We ended the season on a good effort," said head coach Brian Fleishman, who looks forward to his sixth season at the helm next year. "I think that we really grew as a team this season and our theme all year was it's not how we start, but how we finish and I think we really finished strong. Hopefully we can take this and grow from it next year."

Elizabeth Proctor earned All-ACC honors for winning the No. 4 singles flight with a 4-3 record against conference foes. The junior from Myrtle Beach, S.C., is the 13th All-ACC selection at Wake Forest under Fleishman.

Coetzee led the team with 20 singles wins and Schwartz led the squad with 22 doubles victories. All but one of those doubles wins came when she was paired with Martzolf. That Demon Deacon duo went 13-8 at the No. 2 slot and went 5-2 in the ACC. Peaking at the end of the season, all three of their upset wins over ranked teams came in the month of April.

Wake Forest was ranked 15th in the first team poll Jan. 15th and improved to 13th two weeks later. The Deacs fell out of the rankings March 19 and did not reappear. Coetzee, who was not ranked in the preseason individual rankings Sept. 9, but after her hot 11-1 start in the fall, she vaulted to 62nd in the first spring poll on Jan. 13. She went up, down, out and back in as the season progressed and finished 85th. Martzolf was picked 75th at the beginning of the fall and reached as high as 65th in the Feb. 27 poll, but didn't appear again the rest of the year. Several Demon Deacons notched victories against ranked opponents throughout the season (listed below).

All six players return next year for Wake Forest.

Wins over ranked opponents

Karin Coetzee
Date	Opponent	School	Score	Rank then	Rank now
Sept. 20	Tiffany Eklov	Illinois	6-0, 6-1	NR	88th
Oct. 5	Jen Tuchband	Virginia	6-1, 6-1	92nd	70th
Oct. 27	Julia Smith	Duke	6-2, 4-6, 6-4	NR	68th
Oct. 6	Katie Martzolf	Wake Forest	7-6 (4), 6-3	75th	NR
Feb. 27	Michelle DaCosta	Michigan	6-4, 6-4	NR	106th
Mar. 22	Mihaela Moldovan	Florida State	6-3, 6-2	81st	91st
Apr. 12	Henriette Williams	Virginia	6-2, 6-3	88th	100th
Apr. 13	Ramona But	Maryland	6-0, 6-1	85th	89th

Katie Martzolf
Date	Opponent	School	Score	Rank then	Rank now
Sept. 21	Danira Penic	Temple	def.	54th	NR
Sept. 22	Mari Toro	Miami	6-1, 3-6, 6-2	41st	NR
Oct. 4	Megan Muth	William & Mary	6-2, 6-1	NR	73rd
Feb. 6	Anne Nguyen	Georgia	2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4	35th	55th
Feb. 21	Valerie Vladea	Minnesota	7-5, 6-2	119th	NR
Mar. 1	Alicia Salas	Notre Dame	6-3, 6-2	73rd	94th
Mar. 2	Tiffany Eklov	Illinois	7-5, 3-6, 7-5	121st	88th

Aimee Smith
Date	Opponent	School	Score	Rank then	Rank now
Apr. 3	Aniela Mojzis	North Carolina	6-0, 7-5	65th	44th

Coetzee/Smith
Date	Opponent	School	Score	Rank then	Rank now
Sept. 20	Havelkova/Vladea	Minnesota	8-5	29th	NR
Feb. 23	Fuchs/Boomershine	William & Mary	8-4	18th	12th
Mar. 30	Strohm/Grasic	Texas	8-6	NR	22nd
Apr. 18	Jayet/Coin	Clemson	8-6	27th	27th

Schwartz/Martzolf
Date	Opponent	School	Score	Rank then	Rank now
Apr. 1	Bern/Pinchbeck	North Carolina	9-7	65th	45th
Apr. 9	McCain/Adams	Duke	8-4	10th	14th
Apr. 12	James/Stern	Virginia	9-6	31st	44th

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