Florida Gators
NCAA Singles & Doubles - Day 2
W-Tennis Doubles Team Reaches NCAA QF
Wednesday, May 23, 2001 | Women's Tennis
The second day at the NCAA Women's Tennis Individual Championships ended much better than it started for the University of Florida, as the fourth-seeded doubles team of Whitney Laiho and Jessica Lehnhoff easily advanced to the quarterfinals this afternoon. All three Gators playing in the singles event were eliminated in the second round, played Wednesday morning at the Lincoln Tennis Center.
The Gator doubles team roared out from the opening toss and won the first 10 points of the match en route to the 6-0, 6-3 victory over Duke's ninth-ranked pair of Amanda Johnson and Megan Miller.
"We made the shots that we set each other up for and didn't miss them like we did yesterday," Laiho said. "It probably made the match look a lot easier than it was."
Laiho and Lehnhoff play the winner of the match between Wake Forest's Janet Bergman and Bea Bielik and UC San Diego's Krista Manning and Heather Polumbus. That quarterfinal match will be played Thursday afternoon.
Unseeded Florida junior Jessica Lehnhoff (Delray Beach, FL) almost pulled off the upset of the tournament, but eventually fell to top-seeded and defending NCAA champion Laura Granville of Stanford 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
Third-seeded Whitney Laiho (Newport, RI) from Florida was upset 6-4, 7-6 (1) by unseeded Kathy Sell from Duke.
Gator freshman Lindsay Dawaf (Olney, MD) was aiming for her second straight upset of the tournament, but lost a hard-fought 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) battle to 11th-ranked Kristina Kraszewski from Washington.
The momentum changed in Lehnhoff's match during the second set tiebreaker with Lehnhoff leading 3-2. Lehnhoff called a ball wide, but the official on court overruled her call and assessed a point-penalty, giving Granville a 4-3 lead. Lehnhoff never recovered and did not win another point in the tiebreaker. The NCAA Official would not reveal his name or talk with the media, who asked him to comment.
"I'm very disappointed right now, but that's tennis, it's the sport I chose to play and this type of thing happens," Lehnhoff said. "I tried my best, it just wasn't my day today."
Dawaf jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set, but lost her serve in the sixth game as Kraszewski won three straight games to get the set back on serve. Dawaf then broke Kraszewski to take a 5-4 lead and was serving for the set. But the next three games of the match were service breaks to force a tiebreaker. Dawaf held serve to open the second and then broke Kraszewski to spark a four-game break run by the players, who held serve the remainder of the set to force a second tiebreaker, which Kraszewski dominated to advance to the third round.
"I should have capitalized on my leads more, especially in the first set, but I didn't," Dawaf said. "I stopped being as aggressive and (Kraszewski) got back into each set. I had a lot of opportunities, but I didn't take advantage of them."
Laiho ended her collegiate singles career with a disappointing loss. She fell behind Kathy Sell 4-1 in the opening set, but battled back to even the match at 4-all. Sell held serve and then broke Laiho to win the first set. With the second set tied at 3-all, Laiho held triple break point and a total of five break points in the game, but couldn't close it out, as Sell held serve. Laiho couldn't regroup from that game and lost her serve. However, Laiho did break Sell in the next game and then held serve to even the set at 5-all. Both players held their final service game to force the tiebreaker, in which Laiho committed several unforced errors, en route to the straight-set loss.
"I went for too much on my shots," Laiho said. "I wanted to get off the court quickly and I did, unfortunately, I didn't come off with the win."
NCAA Women's Tennis Singles & Doubles Championships
Lincoln Tennis Center
Stone Mountain, Ga.
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
UF Results only
NCAA Singles Second Round
Kathy Sell (30), Duke d. [3] Whitney Laiho (7), UF 6-4, 7-6 (1)
[1] Laura Granville (1), Stanford d. Jessica Lehnhoff (13), UF 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1
[9-16] Kristina Kraszewski (11), Washington d. Lindsay Dawaf (46), UF 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1)
NCAA Doubles Second Round
[4] Laiho/ Lehnhoff (4), UF d. Amanda Johnson/ Megan Miller (9), Duke 6-0, 6-3
END OF REPORT
