Tigers Advance In NCAA Singles And Doubles On Thursday

May 21, 2009

COLLEGE STATION, TX – The Clemson women’s tennis team advanced a singles player and a doubles team into their respective NCAA rounds of 16 on Thursday afternoon at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. Rookie Ina Hadziselimovic.

The day’s news was not all good for the Tiger program as fourth-seeded Ani Mijacika suffered a defeat in singles and fell in the doubles tournament with Keri Wong as well.

Bek avenged last week’s loss to Notre Dame’s Kristy Frilling in the team tournament with a straight set victory on Thursday. She recorded a break early in the first set and held her serve throughout. Bek again broke Frilling’s serve in the final game for the 6-3 win. The Tiger rookie then jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second before the Irish freshman won back-to-back games to narrow the margin. However, Bek managed another break to clinch the victory for her 34th win of the season, moving her into a tie for ninth place for wins in a single season in school history.

Bek will face third-seeded Aurelija Miseviciute of Arkansas in Friday’s round of 16. Exact times will be announced following Thursday’s competition, but Friday’s singles matches will be played between 12:00 pm and 2:30 pm Eastern Time.

Mijacija fell in a hard-fought battle with Miami’s Laura Vallverdu, dropping both sets in the tiebreak. The two players traded games for almost the entire first set with each claiming back-to-back wins just once. Vallverdu then won all seven points in the tiebreak to take the lead in the match. Mijacika trailed in the second set by a 3-1 margin but rallied to win the next four games for the 5-3 advantage. Vallverdu responded with three straight games of her own to regain the 6-5 edge. Mijacika held serve to force the tiebreak but was unable to pull off the comeback. Her 2008-09 singles campaign ended with a 29-9 record.

Mijacika’s rough day continued in doubles play as she and partner Keri Wong were upset in the opening round. The Clemson tandem, a 5-8 seed in the tournament, fell to Baylor’s Csilla Borsanyi and Lenka Broosova in straight sets. The Bear team posted a quick first set win, 6-1, and then eked out the victory in a second-set tiebreak. Baylor held a 5-3 lead but Mijacika and Wong put together three straight games to come within one of sending the match into a third set. However, Borsanyi and Broosova held serve and then dominated the tiebreak to advance (7-6(1)). Mijacika and Wong finished with a 16-6 record for the season.

A Tiger team was on the winning side of an upset as well on Thursday as the duo of Bek and Ina Hadziselimovic knocked off sixth-ranked Nadja Gilchrist and Chelsey Gullickson of Georgia. The Clemson tandem held serve to match the Bulldogs at six games apiece in the opening set and then outlasted the Georgia team, 7-5, in the tiebreak. The teams were then knotted at 2-2 in the second set before the Tigers won three straight games. Gilchrist and Gullickson rallied for one more game before Clemson closed out the match on Hadziselimovic’s serve (7-6(5), 6-3).

Bek and Hadziselimovic now boast a 16-6 record for the year and will take on TCU’s 39th-ranked team of Macall Harkins and Anna Sydorska in the round of 16. Doubles matches are scheduled to begin no earlier than 3:00 pm Eastern Time on Friday.

Updated brackets and schedules will be available on the Texas A&M Athletics homepage, as well as live statistics and video broadcasts of the matches.