Women’s Tennis Faces Fresno State In NCAA Tourney

May 9, 2000

CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson will travel to Stanford, CA for the first round of the NCAA women’s tennis Tournament this weekend. The Lady Tigers under Nancy Harris will meet Fresno State of the Western Athletic Conference at 1:00 PM (Eastern time) on Friday afternoon, May 12. Should Clemson defeat Fresno State, Clemson would meet the winner of the Weber State vs. Stanford match on Saturday at 2:30 PM. Stanford is ranked number-one in the nation in women’s tennis.

Meet Fresno State Friday At 1:00 PM Eastern Time:

• The winner of the four-team regional at Stanford will advance to the NCAA Finals (16 teams) to be held at Pepperdine, May 18-21.
• Clemson has a 15-6 record entering the NCAA tournament and will face a Fresno State team that has a 15-8 record under first-year head coach Corbin Archer. Fresno State was 8-0 at home and 6-7 on the road this season. The Bulldogs are 21-0 at home over two years, but just 8-13 on the opponent’s home courts the last two years.
• Like Clemson, Fresno State advanced to the semifinals of their conference tournament before being eliminated. Fresno State defeated UTEP, 5-1 before losing to Tulsa , 5-4 in the semifinals. According to the April 26th ITA rankings, Clemson is 24th and Fresno State 38th in the nation.
• Fresno State’s top player is number-one singles player Kim Niggemeyer, who has a 27-9 record overall, including 15-7 at number-one singles in dual matches. She will face Clemson’s Carmina Giraldo at number-one singles. The Lady Tiger has an 18-3 record at number-one singles in dual matches and is 28-7 in singles play overall for the year. In the April 26th national singles rankings, Giraldo was ranked 24th in the nation and Niggemeyer was ranked 36th.
• This will be the first meeting between Clemson and Fresno State in women’s tennis.

Harris Takes First Team to NCAAs:

• Nancy Harris is in her third year at Clemson and is taking her second team to the NCAA tournament. Clemson made the tournament her first year, but suffered a 5-0 loss to host school Tennessee on May 15, 1998.
• Harris has a history of success in postseason play. As the head coach of the women’s tennis program at Auburn-Montgomery in Alabama from 1989 to 1997, she posted a 135-34 record. That includes wining the 1992 NAIA National Championship. Her teams were also finalists in 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997 and finished third in 1995 and 1996.

Clemson’s NCAA Tournament History:

• This will be Clemson’s ninth trip to the NCAA women’s tennis tournament. The Lady Tigers have a 5-8 record in the event, dating to a 9-0 loss to Stanford in the round of 16 in 1982 at Salt Lake City, UT. Clemson won its first NCAA tournament match the next year, defeating Oklahoma State, 5-4 in Albuquerque, NM. That Clemson team then lost to Trinity (TX), 8-1 in the national quarterfinals. That is still Clemson’s only appearance in the round of eight.
• Clemson had success in the 1996 NCAA Tournament, posting a 3-1 record. That was the first year of regional playoffs for the event. Clemson defeated South Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia at Columbia, SC on three consecutive days to advance to the national Sweet 16 at Tallahassee that year. Stanford eliminated Clemson that year, 5-1.
• Clemson has been to eight previous NCAA Tournaments and Stanford has eliminated Clemson three of those eight seasons, 1982, 1984 and 1996.
• Individually, Gigi Fernandez is the only Lady Tiger to advance to the NCAA championship match. In 1983 she reached the finals before losing to Beth Herr of Southern California in three sets, including 7-6 in the last set. Sophie Woorons reached the national semifinals in 1996 before losing to number-one seeded Kylie Hunt.
• Carmina Giraldo, who will take part in the individual aspect of the tournament this year, lost in the first round a year ago to Marissa Catlin of Georgia, 7-5, 7-6.

Giraldo Chosen All-ACC:

• Carmina Giraldo was named first-team All-ACC this year by a vote of the nine ACC Head Coaches. It is the second straight year that the sophomore from South America has been chosen to the team. She is the first two time member of the team since Jan Barrett was chosen three straight years from 1994-96. She is the first Lady Tiger to make the team as a freshman and sophomore since Emma Peetz did it in 1993-94.
• Giraldo was ranked 24th in the nation in the April 26th ITA national singles poll. She has been Clemson’s number-one ranked player all year, in fact, she has played the number-one position in the lineup for all 21 dual matches this year and has a 18-3 record in those matches.
• Giraldo is also an outstanding doubles player, posting an 11-4 record in doubles play in dual matches this year and she is 15-7 overall as a doubles player. She has teammed with Cath Galvin to post a 10-3 record this year in doubles play.
• The sophomore from Pereira, Columbia has a 28-7 overall record this year. She has improved her record from 12-8 last year when she also played number-one. Her personal improvement parallel’s Clemson’s team improvement in 2000.
• Giraldo’s winning percentage of .800 is the best by a number-one player at Clemson since 1987 when Ingelise Driehuis had a 42-9 mark, good enough for a .823 percentage. Giraldo already has the most wins by a Clemson player since 1994 when Boba Tzvetkova had a 31-11 record.
• Some of her top victories this year have come against a #8 ranked Esther Knox of Georgia, #14 Katarina Markovski of South Carolina and Kathy Sell of Duke. Giraldo has won 17 of her last 20 matches since February 11. In those 16 wins she has been taken to a third set just three times. She is 6-0 this year on an opponent’s home court.

Clemson 15-6 Entering NCAA Tournament Play:

• Clemson has a 15-6 overall record and 6-2 mark in ACC regular season play entering the NCAA Tournament. Clemson enters the event on having won five of its last six. The only loss was in the ACC Tournament semifinals to a fifth ranked Duke team.
• During Clemson’s recent streak, the Lady Tigers have beaten Maryland and Georgia Tech by 6-3 scores, and Virginia and 19th ranked Florida State by 5-4 scores. That win over Florida State is the highest ranked win by the Lady Tigers this year. Clemson defeated Virginia in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
• Clemson has just six losses all year and five of those are to teams who were ranked in the top 17 in the nation at the time of the loss. Clemson has lost to a fifth-ranked Georgia team, a 17th-ranked South Carolina team, a second-ranked Wake Forest team and to an 11th ranked and ninth ranked Duke team. South Florida also defeated Clemson this year.
• Clemson opened the year with a 6-1 record, with the only loss coming to #5 Georgia. The Lady Tigers defeated Miami (FL), Virginia Tech and Pennsylvania during that 6-1 start. Clemson lost three of five matches between March 13 and March 24, then finished strong with four straight wins to end the regular season.

Clemson’s Most Improved Team Since 1983:

• Clemson might be considered the most improved team in the ACC this year. Nancy Harris’s Lady Tigers have transposed the wins and losses going from a final mark of 6-15 a year ago to a 15-6 record heading into the NCAA Tournament. This increase of nine wins over the previous year is Clemson’s top one-season improvement since 1983 when Clemson went from 18-13 in 1982 to a 30-5 mark in 1983. That 30-5 season remains Clemson’s top victory total in history.
• The Clemson record for victory improvement from one season to another is +14. Clemson improved from 9-6 in 1976 to a 23-2 mark in 1977. This year’s record is already the fourth best one season improvement in Clemson history. The 1983 team showed that 12-victory improvement, and the 1980 team had an 11-win improvement over 1979.
• Clemson’s 15-6 record computes to a .714 winning percentage. That is Clemson’s best overall winning percentage since the 1993 season when Andy Johnston’s Lady Tigers were 20-6, a .769 percentage.
• Clemson has also improved in terms of league play this year, transposing the win-loss totals. The Lady Tigers were 2-6 in ACC play in 1999, but 6-2 in 2000. Clemson’s only regular season league losses were to national top five teams Wake Forest and Duke. Clemson’s six ACC wins are the most by the Clemson program since 1994 when Clemson finished second in the league standings with a 6-2 mark.

Top Four Players Have Winning Dual Meet Records:

• While Carmina Giraldo has been outstanding at #1 singles this year, there are three other Lady Tigers with an overall winning record in singles play. Number-two singles player Catherine Galvin is 20-18 overall in singles play and is 11-9 in dual matches. The only senior on the Clemson roster also has a fine 16-8 record as a doubles player this year.
• Number-three player Laurence Jayet has 24 wins overall against 13 losses. She was the only Lady Tiger to have a 2-0 mark in the ACC Tournament. The 24 wins are the second highest singles victory total on the team and her 18-8 mark in doubles play leads the Lady Tigers in total doubles wins. Jayet enters the NCAA Tournament having won seven of her last eight, and 12 of her last 16 singles matches.
• Renato Brito is Clemson’s number-four player. She has a 13-8 overall mark, including 12-7 in dual matches. She also has an outstanding 12-5 record in doubles play, including 11-4 in dual matches.