University of Washington
St. Mary's
Huskies Rally For 5-2 Win Over No. 41 St. Mary's
February 13, 2011 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 13, 2011
» Q&A With Freshman Andjela Nemcevic
SEATTLE - Trailing 0-2 against an upset-minded opponent, the 23rd-ranked Husky women's tennis team battled back for five straight wins in singles to hold off No. 41 St. Mary's, 5-2, this afternoon at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. Senior Aleksandra Krsljanin played what head coach Jill Hultquist called "the match of the day" to give UW its first lead at 3-2 before junior Denise Dy clinched the win.
With the win, the Huskies (7-1) are bound for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, which begin next Friday in Charlottesville, Virginia. Just who exactly the Huskies will face will be determined early in the coming week. They are guaranteed three matches in the first three days in the loaded field.
Early returns this morning for the Huskies were a bit off. They lost the doubles point after Adrijana Pavlovic and Samantha Smith lost 8-5 in the No. 2 match after owning a 4-0 lead. St. Mary's then took the first singles match of the day at No. 4 and won first sets on two more courts. It was a similar story to UW's only loss of the year, a 4-3 defeat at San Diego last week where doubles proved costly.
"I actually was really furious after the doubles," said Hultquist. "The total collapse that happened at our number two doubles. I felt we were in total control and we lost a bit of the edge. I didn't know really how to express my frustration, but (assistant coach Damon Coupe) knew how to express it. He was telling them `we have got to fight, fight, fight!' I'm not a big yeller, and that's why I have Damon sometimes is to drive the message home, that they needed to get back out there and fight because we knew St. Mary's was going to be really tough."
UW's fight did begin to turn things around midway through singles play. Senior Venise Chan, who hadn't lost a match thus far in dual play, trailed Catherine Isip, 5-2, at No. 2 singles. But Chan was able to figure out Isip's hard-hitting style and came all the way back to take the first set, 7-5. Chan then cruised in the second set, 6-2, to get UW on the board.
At sixth singles, Pavlovic was making her second start in the singles lineup. A community college transfer, the junior was up 6-4, 5-1 on Laurie Gingras, but Gingras came back with three straight games, and was serving up 40-0 to make it 5-5. But Gingras opened the door with a double fault, and Pavlovic came all the way back to break serve and clinch the 6-4, 6-4 win.
"It's always tough when you come into a new situation, so I think that will help get her a little more comfortable on the court," said Hultquist on Pavlovic's key win.
Moments later, Krsljanin completed a big second set rally of her own. Up a set on Anna Chkhikvishvili at the No. 5 spot but down a break at 2-3 in the second, Krsljanin won the final four games to finish a 6-4, 6-3 win and put UW up 3-2.
"(Krsljanin) just has really had to learn a lot of discipline, and she played really smart today," said Hultquist.
That seemingly set the stage for another dramatic showdown with sixth-ranked Dy at No. 1 singles, reminiscent of her two victories in National Team Indoor qualifying to clinch two Top-20 wins. Dy was up a break at 4-3 in the first set before losing three straight games to 85th-ranked Alex Poorta. The All-American rallied to take the second set, 6-3, and send it to a third. But shortly after Krsljanin won, Poorta took a bad spill trying to chase down a Dy volley. She took a long timeout with what appeared to be an ankle or foot injury. Poorta came back out and admirably tried to play two more points, but she could barely put any pressure on the leg. She had to retire, and UW had suddenly clinched it.
That left junior Samantha Smith, who had impressively battled all the way back from 6-4, 5-2 down in her No. 3 singles match to force a second set tiebreak. The sudden retirement took the pressure off a bit, but Smith still pushed through to the finish by winning the second set tiebreak and then taking the subsequent super-tiebreak, 10-4.
Washington Women's Tennis
Nordstrom Tennis Center - Seattle, Wash.
February 13, 2011
No. 23 Washington 5; No. 41 St. Mary's 2
Doubles
2. Poorta/Chkhikvishvili (SMC) def. Pavlovic/Smith (UW), 8-5
3. Soper/Jullien (SMC) def. Nemcevic/Radunovic (UW), 8-1
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles
1. (6) Denise Dy (UW) def. (85) Alex Poorta (SMC), 4-6, 6-3, ret.
2. (55) Venise Chan (UW) def. Catherine Isip (SMC), 7-5, 6-2
3. Samantha Smith (UW) def. Jenny Jullien (SMC), 4-6, 7-6 (5), (10-4)
4. Claire Soper (SMC) def. Andjela Nemcevic (UW), 6-3, 6-1
5. Aleksandra Krsljanin (UW) def. Anna Chkhikvishvili (SMC), 6-4, 6-3
6. Adrijana Pavlovic (UW) def. Laurie Gingras (SMC), 6-4, 6-4
Order of finish: 4, 2, 6, 5, 1, 3
Players Mentioned
