Jan. 10, 2008
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech women’s tennis team, ranked No. 1 in the nation according to the first poll of the 2008 season, will return to the courts this weekend in Las Vegas when they compete in the sixth-annual Freeman Memorial Tennis Tournament, which is being hosted by UNLV at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.
The Yellow Jackets have sent four competitors to the tournament, including seniors Kristi Miller and Whitney McCray, and will begin play Friday morning at 10 a.m. PST, weather permitting. All participants in the singles draw are from teams ranked in the top-50 in the polls, and the event features two flights each of singles and doubles in addition to consolation rounds.
Amanda McDowell and Miller are the top two seeds in the tournament’s 32-players singles field while the Arizona State duo of Laila and Nadia Abdala form the top doubles tandem in the event.
McDowell will open singles play with an 11 a.m. match against UCLA’s Alex McGoodwin. McCray (playing L. Abdala) and Kirsten Flower (facing UCLA’s Yasmin Schnack) will also compete in 11 a.m. singles matches, while Miller squares off against Arizona State’s Wendy Pilecka at 12 noon.
Prior to the start of singles, the Jackets will open the tournament Friday with 10 a.m. doubles matches. The tandem of McDowell and McCray will face Stanford’s talented tandem of Whitney Deason and Jessica Nguyen in the first round, and Miller will team with Flower against UCLA’s tandem of Elizabeth Lumpkin and Stephanie Wetmore
No champions were crowned in last year’s event after participants were able to complete just one round of singles and one of doubles due to unusually frigid temperatures.
2008 FREEMAN MEMORIAL TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSFertitta Tennis Complex, Las Vegas, Nev.
TEAM KEY & CURRENT NATIONAL ITA RANKING Georgia Tech (GT) 1 Stanford (STAN) 2 UCLA 3 Florida (UF) 4 Southern California (USC) 8 North Carolina (UNC) 12 Arizona State (ASU) 19 UNLV 43 Oregon (UO) 45
SINGLES SEEDING (NATIONAL RANK), SCHOOL 1. Amanda McDowell (3), GT 2. Kristi Miller (7), GT 3. Jessica Nguyen (21), STAN 4. Whitney McCray (22), GT 5. Yasmin Schnack (28), UCLA 6. Elena Gantcheva (30), UNLV 7. Megan Alexander (37), UF 8. Nadia Abdala (42), ASU OTHER RANKED PLAYERS Nastia Revzina (50), UF Amanda Fink (51), USC Csilla Borsanyi (59), UF Austin Smith (72), UNC Kelcy McKenna (93), ASU
DOUBLES SEEDING, SCHOOL 1. Nadia Abdala/Laila Abdala, ASU 2. Kristi Miller/Kirsten Flower, GT 3. Elena Gantcheva/Kristina Nedeltcheva, UNLV 4. Megan Alexander/Csilla Borsanyi, UF
SCHEDULE OF PLAY, WEATHER PERMITTING Friday Doubles Round of 16 10:00 a.m. Singles Round of 32 Follow Singles Round of 16 Follow
Saturday Doubles Quarterfinals 10:00 a.m. Singles Quarterfinals Follow Singles Semifinals Follow
Sunday NOTE: Times for Sunday are TBD depending on which team’s players remain. Doubles Semifinals TBA Doubles Final Follow Singles Final Follow
