May 13, 2008

DAY 2 RESULTS

MOBILE, Ala--Round two of the 2008 NAIA Women's Tennis National Championship saw seven-of-eight seeded teams advance, with Embry-Riddle pulling off the lone upset.

The day began with five seeded teams defeating their opponents by a combined 27-2 score to advance to the Quarterfinals on Wednesday, May 14^th at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center. The final three matches of the day treated tennis fans to a pair of 5-4 outcomes and Embry-Riddle's (Fla.) 5-2 upset over SCAD (Ga.).

The Lady Eagles took two-of-three doubles matches from SCAD, including a 9-7 victory in No. 1 doubles by Natasa Zoricic and Hana Im. Embry-Riddle then polished off easy victories in the top two singles matches and got a comeback victory by No. 6 singles player Sara Abraul to advance.

Other highlights of round two featured California Baptist holding off Cumberland (Tenn.) 5-4 and Berry (Ga.) disposing of Southern Nazarene (Okla.) by the same score.

Cumberland started the match by taking two-of-three doubles matches by a combined 16-4 margin, but the Lancers of Cal Baptist rallied in singles play. The No. 2-4 singles players picked up easy victories and then No. 6 player Jessica Roddy won in three sets to move to 13-5 in that position on the year and keep the 6^th-seeded Lancers from going home early.

7^th-seeded Berry followed by holding off upset-minded Southern Nazarene 5-4 thanks to solid doubles play and a rebound by their top-gun. After the Lady Vikings took a 2-1 lead out of doubles action, Berry's No. 1 Emma Cruz promptly fell behind 0-1 in her match versus Christy Greenly. But, Cruz responded and disposed of Greenly by a 6-0, 6-3 over the final two sets. Meanwhile, the Lady Vikings' Kendal Ruffner and Anja Chan held on for 7-5 victories in both their second sets to pick up big wins in singles play.

Earlier in the day, Fresno Pacific (Calif.) downed Indiana Wesleyan 5-0, Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) beat Union (Ky.)  6-0, Auburn-Montgomery (Ala.) defeated Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.) 6-0, Vanguard (Calif.) beat Xavier (La.) 5-1 and Azusa Pacific (Calif.) defeated Westmont (Calif.) 5-1.

Wednesday's Quarterfinal action will pit top-seeded Auburn-Montgomery versus Embry-Riddle, 5^th-seeded Azusa Pacific v. 4^th-seeded Vanguard, 3^rd-seeded Lindsey Wilson v. 6^th-seeded California Baptist and 7^th-seeded Berry v. 2^nd-seeded Fresno Pacific.