Deacs Set for Maryland in ACC Championship Opener
4/22/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 22, 2014
Live Scoring | 2014 ACC Women's Tennis Championship Bracket
By Currie McFayden, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeWTennis)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - No. 70 Wake Forest is set to open play at the 2014 ACC Women's Tennis Championships hosted at the Cary Tennis Park on Wednesday at 9 a.m. against No. 73 Maryland.
The Demon Deacons (11-12, 3-11 ACC) earned the No. 13 seed for the tournament, while the Terrapins (8-12, 4-10 ACC) are the No. 12 seed. The matchup on Wednesday morning will serve as the opener for the tournament and will be followed by two matches with Noon start times: Pittsburgh vs. Boston College and NC State vs. Virginia Tech.
In the first match this season, Maryland narrowly edged Wake Forest in a 4-3 heartbreaker on the Leighton Courts at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex. In the deciding match, Nataliya Bredikhina earned a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 win over Kimmy Guerin at No. 2 singles to seal the marathon victory for the Terrapins.
Wake Forest dropped a 4-3 decision against No. 69 Syracuse in the regular season finale last Friday. Despite dropping the doubles point, the squad staged a rally that fell just short in singles after wins by Guerin, Andrea Retolaza and Kasey Gardiner. They will be looking to snap a five-match skid that ended the regular season.
Maryland split its final two matches of the season in a weekend doubleheader against Boston College and NC State. The Terrapins fell 5-2 against the Eagles on Saturday in College Park, Md., before rallying for a close 4-3 victory over the Wolfpack on Sunday.
The Deacs will be seeking their first victory in the ACC Tournament since upsetting NC State by a final score of 4-2 on April 22, 2010. In that match, victories in doubles play and at the top three singles positions by Martina Pavelec, Sasha Kulikova and Emilee Malvehy gave Wake Forest the win.
Last season, Gardiner picked up a singles win against Florida State in the opening round, but Wake Forest fell 4-1 against the Seminoles in Cary, N.C. Five of the six players who competed for the Deacs on that squad returned this season, the lone exception being Kathryn Talbert.
A win by Wake Forest on Wednesday would represent the final ACC match for Maryland, who will be departing the conference for the Big Ten beginning in the 2014-15 academic year. The Demon Deacons hold a 29-10 all-time advantage over the Terrapins, including a 13-match winning streak that spanned from 1989-2001.
North Carolina earned the top overall seed for the tournament and will receive a double-bye into Friday's quarterfinals alongside Miami, Virginia and Clemson. The winner of the Wake Forest-Maryland showdown will advance to take on fifth-seeded Duke at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning.
One-day tickets for the 2014 ACC Women's Tennis Championship are $8.00 for adults, $6.00 for children ages nine or older, seniors and college students with a university ID and are free for children younger than nine. For additional information about the event, please see the ACC's championship site.
