University of Washington
NCAA Championships
Husky Duo Reaches NCAA Doubles Quarterfinals
May 27, 2011 | Women's Tennis
May 27, 2011
NCAA Tournament Central | Women's Doubles Draw
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Linked in so many ways over the past three years, senior Venise Chan and junior Denise Dy are now doubles All-Americans together as well, as the Husky tandem upset a fifth-ranked Miami duo to reach the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championships today at Stanford. Chan and Dy will seek a spot in the final four tomorrow at 2 p.m.
Chan and Dy saved match points to pull off the late theatrics. Miami's Anna Bartenstein and Bianca Eichkorn took the first set, 7-5, but Chan and Dy cruised to the 6-2 second set win. The third set was one of several runs. After the Huskies took a 3-2 lead, Miami won three straight games to go up 5-3. In the next game, Miami took a 40-15 lead to earn a pair of match points, but the senior Chan saved both, one on a backhand volley crosscourt and another with a forehand that the Miami player could not handle at net.
From there, the Huskies rolled off the next three games to take the set and match, 7-5. Reaching the NCAA quarterfinals is one of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's criteria to earning doubles All-America honors. Chan and Dy had already sewn up their singles awards. They become UW's first doubles All-Americans since Dea Sumantri and Claire Carter also made a quarterfinal run in 2004. The only other quarterfinal appearance was by Carter and Darija Klaic in 2002, and no Huskies have made the semis.
"After we got out of that game we were both just like `okay, this is it we have got to get this!' said Chan. "The last two games I was flying all over the place trying to get to every ball. Getting doubles All-America was one of my goals but I think we can keep going."
They'll next face another big challenge in third-seeded Kaitlyn Christian and Maria Sanchez of USC. Back before Chan and Dy split up as partners in the regular season, they faced Christian and Sanchez in Los Angeles and held match points on them after earning a 7-4 lead, before the USC pair fought back to give Chan and Dy their first loss of the year.
Earlier in the day, Chan, winner of the second-most singles matches in Washington history with 101 victories, ran into the nation's top-ranked singles player in the NCAA Round of 16 for the second year in a row. California's Jana Juricova had breezed through her first two matches, losing a total of six games. Chan made her work more but still could not take a set off the top seed, falling 6-3, 6-2, in a match that was closer than the score due to several games going to deuce.
A Hong Kong native, Chan came to UW after the Huskies had won a combined eight matches over the previous two years, missing NCAAs both seasons after a nine-year run. She immediately went to the No. 1 singles spot as a freshman, and led Washington back to the NCAA Championships all four years of her career, with a Round of 16 showing in 2009 and second round finishes the past two years. She will earn her second straight ITA All-American distinction for singles.
Her career singles record finishes at 101-36, a career winning percentage of .737 that is the highest out of all players on the UW Top-10 career wins list, with the lone exception of her teammate Denise Dy.
Washington Women's Tennis
NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships
May 27, 2011 - Palo Alto, Calif.
Taube Tennis Center
NCAA Singles - Round of 16
NCAA Doubles - Round of 16
(13) Chan/Dy (UW) def. (5) Bartenstein/Eichkorn (Miami), 5-7, 6-2, 7-5
(#) refer to national ITA singles rankings; in the tournament itself, Dy is also the No. 4 seed and Chan is one of eight (9-16) seeds.
Players Mentioned
