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Virginia's
Devvarman,
Arkansas's
Miseviciute capture singles titles at ITA National
Indoor Championships; Virginia,
Notre Dame capture doubles titles
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Virginia's
Somdev Devvarman and Arkansas's Aurelija Miseviciute
captured the singles titles and Virginia and Notre
Dame duos claimed the doubles titles Sunday at the
Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National
Indoor Championships. This event, the second of
three national championships for singles and doubles
during the 2007-08 collegiate tennis season, was
hosted by Ohio State at the Racquet Club of
Columbus.
Devvarman beat Illinois's Ryan
Rowe 7-6(2), 6-2 in today's men's singles final.
Miseviciute beat Clemson's Ani Mijacika 6-3, 5-7,
7-6(3) in the women's match. Devvarman and his
partner Treat Huey from Virginia edged USC's Kaes
Van't Hof and Robert Farah, 6-4, 6-4 in the men's
doubles final, while Notre Dame's Brook Buck and
Kelcy Tefft beat Baylor's Lenka Broosova and Zuzana
Zemenova, 6-3, 6-1 in the women's final.
Devvarman, last year's ITA
National Player of the Year, captured his second
national title – he won the NCAA singles title in
May. With wins in both singles and doubles,
Devvarman became only the fourth player in
tournament history to sweep the ITA Indoor men's
titles, and the first since Oklahoma State's Pavel
Kudrnac in 1998. USC's Luke Jensen also swept the
titles in 1987 and Trinity's Erick Iskersky swept
the 1979 titles. The senior from Chennai, India
improved to 14-1 this season, and has won 30 of his
last 31 matches dating back to last season.
Devvarman won all of his National Indoor matches
without dropping at set and his semifinal win on
Saturday against Stanford's Alex Clayton was his
126th career singles victory, breaking Brian
Vahaly's (1998-2001) school record.
"It feels good," Devvarman
said. "I know I'm in good company with the all-time
greats at Virginia, (Brian) Vahaly, Huntley
(Montgomery), so many great players that have come
out of Virginia, and it's just an honor to be there.
Hopefully I won't stop right here, I'll keep going
throughout the spring season."
Illinois's Rowe, a senior from
Moline, Illinois, was the third Illinois player to
reach Indoor final, joining Ryler DeHeart (2004) and
Amer Delic (2002). Rowe kept it close in the first
set, but couldn't keep Devvarman in sight in the
second.
"Somdev is not known for a big
serve or anything," Rowe said, "but he's obviously
able to be very effective on his serve. He came up
with a couple good shots here and there to get an
early break in the second set, and he was able to
stay tough. He just played a little better than I
did today."
"My game plan going into the match was just to focus
on my serve," Devvarman said. "When you're playing
guys with huge serves like Ryan's, you have to focus
on making your own before you can even worry about
breaking theirs. As the match kept going on, I kept
getting better looks on his serve and making him hit
more first volleys. I think that paid off toward the
end. In the breaker I made two good returns, and
that's all I needed in the breaker, because I kept
serving well."
Arkansas's Miseviciute upset
three seeded players on her way to capturing her
first-ever national title, and tallying an
impressive 26-1 record this season. In the first
round, the unseeded junior from Lithuania upset
Northwestern's No. 8 seed Georgia Rose and toppped
No.1 seed Megan Falcon from LSU in the
quarterfinals. In today's final she took out No. 3
seed Mijacika from Clemson, in a match that lasted
almost three hours. Miseviciute won the first set
quickly and took a 5-4 lead in the second. Facing
two match points, Mijacika fought back to win the
second set, 7-5. The third set was back and forth,
including a game that ended with eight deuces. And
again, Miseviciute found herself at match point,
serving up 5-4. But Mijacika would win the next
three games before Miseviciute regrouped to force
the tiebreaker.
"I had two match points, but
lost three games in a row," Miseviciute said. "It
took me some time to get up after that and come
back. You definitely feel pressure in the final.
Every point is a big point, and it's hard to play
aggressive because you just want to win so bad. In
the tiebreaker, I told myself not to think about the
score and just play my game, and it worked out
really well."
Buck and Tefft captured the
first ITA Indoor doubles title for the Fighting
Irish and improve to 14-2 this season. The duo
captured the ITA National Summer title in 2006 and
had won five junior national titles together prior
to Notre Dame.
"We've played together
forever, and we've won five juniors title, so it was
nice to finally win one before I left," senior Buck
said. "She's like my sister. It couldn't be any
better; our moms are here, and it's perfect."
Buck and Tefft went up quickly
in the first set, and held on to win 6-3, 6-1 over
the Baylor duo of Zemenova and Broosova. Both
Oklahoma natives, Tefft and Buck played their best
tennis at the net, beating Baylor with their short
game.
"Our coach in juniors really
emphasized playing the net," Tefft said. "And since
we were indoors, and it's so much faster, we thought
that playing the net would be a good strategy. Most
of the girls we're playing hit bigger balls than we
do, so would be deadly if we tried to stay back and
bang it out with them. We both like being at the net
better."
Devvarman and Huey are the
first duo from Virginia to win the ITA National
Indoor title, and after capturing the All-American
doubles title, they become the third team in four
years to sweep the first two titles (and fifth
overall) of the season. In the first set today,
Virginia was down 4-1, but battled back to win 6-4,
6-4 over Farah and Van't Hof.
"I think we came out really
fired up, but they got a good break, and went up
4-1," Devvarman said. "But we raised our game a lot,
we got a couple of good breaks for us and our energy
level went up about ten notches."
"We're a better team when we
play outdoors," Huey said. "So we knew coming in
that we would have to step up our game; we played a
lot of good teams, and to take the title here is
just great, especially against a team like USC."
But the duo already has their
eyes on another prize: the NCAA team title.
"Now we're just trying to go
back and get the team ready for January," Devvarman
said. "We have a long season ahead of us, and our
goal is to get to NCAAs, and do a good job there. It
doesn't matter how you start, it matters how you
finish."
ITA National
Intercollegiate Indoor Championships
Hosted by Ohio State at Racquet Club of Columbus
Men's Singles Final
Somdev Devvarman, Virginia (1), def. Ryan Rowe,
Illinois, 7-6(2), 6-2.
Women's Singles Final
Aurelija Miseviciute, Arkansas, def. Ani Mijacika,
Clemson (3), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(3).
Men's Doubles Final
Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey, Virginia (1), def.
Robert Farah and Kaes Van't Hof, USC, 6-4, 6-4.
Women's Doubles Final
Brook Buck and Kelcy Tefft, Notre Dame, def. Lenka
Broosova and Zuzana Zemenova, Baylor, 6-3, 6-1.
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