Women's Tennis Wraps Up 2007 Season
6/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
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June 1, 2007
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - After receiving their fourth consecutive at-large bid to the NCAA Championship, the Wake Forest women's tennis team concluded its season with a 15-8 overall record and went 7-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference to tie for fifth in one of the top conferences.
The Deacs traveled to Williamsburg, Va. for the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament. To open the tournament, Wake rallied to defeat Penn, 4-1, but fell 4-1 to15th-seeded William & Mary in the second round. The Demon Deacons surpassed last season's 14 victories and garnered the most wins in a season since 2002. Senior Ashlee Davis and junior Alexandra Hirsch also received an at-large bid to the NCAA Individual Championships and faced the 5-8 seed tandem of Susie Babos and Zsuzsanna Fodor of Cal. The Wake duo fought a hard battle, but ultimately fell to Cal's fifth-ranked tandem in three sets, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4.
The Wake tandem finished the season ranked 31st nationally, while freshman Sasha Kulikova and sophomore Ana Jerman finished the season ranked 49th. Kulikova and Jerman went 12-4, going 11-2 at the No. 2 spot and went 2-1 against nationally-ranked opponents. Wake opened the season with a national ranking of 18th and stayed in the Top 20 all season long. The Demon Deacons reached as high as 14th on two different occasions, March 6 and March 20. Wake was ranked 20th in the ITA's final rankings, which marked a Top 20 rank for the first time since 2002 and the ninth overall Top 20 rank since 1994.
In singles, Hirsch led the team ranked 65th, while Davis and sophomore Christian Tara checked in at 115th and 125th, respectively.
"I am very proud of this team as we battled many injuries throughout the year," said second-year head coach Chad Skorupka. "Finishing in the Top 20 was a great accomplishment. Injuries are a part of any sport and it's how you deal with them as a team which will decide if you go up or down and our ranking speaks for itself."
Davis along with senior teammate Christine Simpson ended their collegiate careers with Wake Forest, both adding leadership on and off the courts.
"We lost two outstanding players in Ashlee Davis and Christine Simpson. We wish them all the best in their future after Wake Forest and at the same time we look forward to welcoming our two freshmen in the fall Emilee Malvehy (Auburn, CA) and Katarina Reveche (Canoga Park, CA)."
Wake Forest's first fall competition will be Sept. 14-16 at the University of Tennessee Invitational.
- WakeForestSports.com -
Players Mentioned
