W. Tennis Faces Top-Seeded Vanderbilt in Sweet 16
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s tennis team will resume NCAA Team Championship play Thursday with a Sweet 16 matchup against second-ranked and top-seeded Vanderbilt.
Miami (18-7, 11-3 ACC), both ranked and seeded No. 16, will square off with the Commodores at 4 p.m. at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex in Winston-Salem, N.C. Live stats, live video and other official information about the finals site can be found HERE.
The Hurricanes are making their 12th appearance in the Sweet in the past 13 years, one of just three teams in the nation to achieve that, along with Florida (12) and Stanford (13). This is the program’s 23rd Sweet 16 berth in the 37-year history of the tournament.
Miami is 2-1 all-time against Vanderbilt, including 1-1 at neutral sites, but the teams have never met in the postseason. Most recently, in the lone matchup since 2000, Miami logged a 4-3 victory on Feb. 8, 2014 in Charlottesville, Va., in the ITA National Indoor Championship.
The Hurricanes sport a 53-32 mark in NCAA Team Championship play, including a 40-16 ledger under 17th-year head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews. Miami, which has never played an NCAA match in North Carolina, is 26-26 at neutral sites in the tournament.
Miami opened NCAA Team Championship play at home for the 13th time in 14 years, posting a 4-0 win over LIU Brooklyn May 11 and a 4-3 triumph against No. 22 UCF the following day.
The Hurricanes have two ranked singles players, as sophomore Estela Perez-Somarriba checks in at third in the country and senior Sinead Lohan is No. 69. Perez-Somarriba earned ACC Player of the Year recognition, while Lohan is a four-time All-ACC honoree.
Perez-Somarriba is in both of Miami’s ranked doubles duos. She pairs with junior Ana Madcur in the No. 51 position and teams with junior Daniella Roldan in the No. 68 spot.
Vanderbilt heads into Thursday’s match at 24-3 (12-1 SEC) after winning 13 consecutive matches. The Commodores, who have reached the Final Four the last three years, feature three ranked singles players: No. 10 Fernanda Contreras, No. 11 Astra Sharma and No. 44 Christina Rosca.
Contreras and Perez-Somarriba, whom she lost to on the second day of the spring season, are tied for the lead of all players in the 64-team field with 37 singles wins in 2017-18, per College Tennis Today information.
In doubles, Contreras and Sharma form the highest-ranked of three Vanderbilt pairs on the Oracle/ITA list, checking in at No. 11. Rosca and Kurtz hold the No. 25 spot, while Kurtz also checks in at No. 69 with Emily Smith.
The winner of Thursday’s match will take on either No. 21 Florida State of No. 24 Tulsa Saturday in the Elite Eight at 4 p.m. To view the complete tournament draw, click HERE.
To keep up with the University of Miami women’s tennis team on social media, follow @CanesWTennis on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
