Florida Gators
NCAA Singles & Doubles - Day 1
W-Tennis Perfect on Day 1 of NCAA Individual Champ
Wednesday, May 23, 2001 | Women's Tennis
Severe rain and thunderstorms played havoc on the first day of the NCAA Women's Singles and Doubles Championships, but the University of Florida's Whitney Laiho, Lindsay Dawaf and Jessica Lehnhoff cruised through the first round with a combined 4-0 record, including the doubles win by Laiho and Lehnhoff.
Gator senior Whitney Laiho (Newport, RI) and freshman Lindsay Dawaf (Olney, MD) played the early matches of the day and raced through their respective opponents and beat the rain showers that forced several other matches to be played indoors at two different tennis facilities in Atlanta.
Dawaf posted an impressive 6-1, 6-1 first round victory over Duke's Amanda Johnson, who is ranked No. 10 in the country. Dawaf opened the match losing her serve, but ripped off the next six games to claim the first set. The second set began with Johnson holding serve, but Dawaf played steady tennis and advanced to the second round, where she faces Texas' Janet Walker on Wednesday.
"I played really aggressive from the beginning and kept it throughout the whole match," said Dawaf, who improved her season record to 30-8. "I played pretty well today."
Laiho, who received the No. 3 seed in the 64-player tournament, had little trouble in her first round victory over Old Dominion's Ana Radeljevic, winning 6-1, 6-2. Laiho plays either Duke's Kathy Sell or California's Christine Fusano in the second round on Wednesday.
"The day off was great, we were able to relax and get some time away from tennis," said Laiho, who referred to the day off between the team and individual championships. "I felt really good at the beginning of the match. (Radeljevic) started hitting more balls back and I started rushing some. But I was able to get my focus back and close out the match."
Gator junior Jessica Lehnhoff (Delray Beach, FL) never stepped on court before the rains came, and played her first round match at the Bill Moore Tennis Center on the Georgia Tech University campus. Lehnhoff survived the delay and venue change and defeated California's Anita Kurimay 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3. The grueling win was Lehnhoff's 100th career singles victory, as she improved her record to 100-20, including a 36-8 record this season. Lehnhoff's second round opponent will be top-seeded and defending NCAA champion Laura Granville of Stanford.
"My emotions were going up and down throughout the entire match," Lehnhoff said. "Mentally, I was prepared to play this match outside and I didn't do a good job of adjusting. (Kurimay) likes to come to the net and when you play indoors it's hard to lob that much. It was a very frustrating match."
After Lehnhoff won the first set with relative ease, the second set was a grueling battle that featured eight service breaks. Lehnhoff led 4-3 in the second with the serve, but fell behind 30-40. She saved that break point and but couldn't capitalize on two game points of her own as Kurimay evened the set at 4-all after Lehnhoff's unforced error. Lehnhoff then broke Kurimay's serve at Love to serve for the match at 5-4. Again Kurimay broke Lehnhoff, held serve and then won the tiebreaker convincingly. In the deciding third set, Lehnhoff won the first two games and Kurimay won the next two. But Lehnhoff won the next three games behind a pair of breaks and found herself again serving for the match. Two double-faults in the game helped Kurimay to a break point, but Lehnhoff brought the game back to duce, and finally capitalized on her third match-point to capture the hard-fought victory.
In doubles action, the Gator duo of Laiho and Lehnhoff overcame a slow start to defeat Kentucky's Lauren Rookledge and Brooke Skeen 7-5, 6-3. The fourth-seeded pair from Florida found themselves trailing 4-0 in the first set, but regrouped to advance to the second round, where they meet the other Kentucky team of Carolina Mayorga and Sarah Witten.
"I'm not making excuses for myself, but I was so dizzy with my serve after having just played my singles match indoors," said Lehnhoff, who moved from the indoor facility to the outdoor Lincoln Tennis Center following the conclusion of her singles match. "I was used to seeing white when I served and now there was the sun so it took me a few games to get use to our surroundings."
"It was good for us today, but it was so hard to keep our concentration throughout the match," said Laiho who talked about the differences in playing a best-of-3-set match compared to an 8-game pro set that is used during team competition. "I think we faded in and out a bit. This was a good first round match for us to get reacquainted with the standard format."
NCAA Women's Tennis Singles & Doubles Championships
Lincoln Tennis Center
Stone Mountain, Ga.
Tuesday, May 22, 2001
NCAA Women's Singles Championships
First Round (UF results only)
[3] Whitney Laiho, UF d. Ana Radeljevic, Old Dominion 6-1, 6-2
Lindsay Dawaf, UF d. Amanda Johnson, Duke 6-1, 6-1
Jessica Lehnhoff, UF d. Anita Kurimay, California 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3
NCAA Women's Doubles Championships
First Round (UF results only)
[4] Whitney Laiho / Jessica Lehnhoff, UF d. Lauren Rookledge / Brooke Skeen, Kentucky 7-5, 6-3
END OF REPORT
