Wolverines to Head South for NCAA Sweet 16 Friday
5/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 11, 2015
THIS WEEK
NCAA Team Championship (Waco, Texas)
Friday, May 15 -- vs. No. 7 Georgia - Round of 16 (Waco, Texas), Noon CDT
With a win ... Sunday, May 17 -- vs. No. 3 California/No. 14 Stanford -- Quarterfinals (Waco, Texas), Noon CDT
With a win ... Monday, May 18 -- Semifinals (Waco, Texas), Noon CDT
With a win ... Tuesday, May 19 -- National Championship (Waco, Texas), 5 p.m. CDT
• NCAA Bracket | NCAA Championship Central
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Schedule Change: Michigan's match against No. 7 Georgia on Friday (May 15) has been move to the indoor courts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, due to rain. The match will begin at 1 p.m. CDT. [ Live Scoring ]
The No. 11-seeded University of Michigan women's tennis team (26-3) heads to Waco, Texas, for the remainder of the NCAA Championship after a pair of wins over Miami (Ohio) (4-0) and DePaul (4-2) in NCAA Regional action. U-M is making its fifth NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in the last six seasons and will face No. 6 seed Georgia (22-6) on Friday (May 15) at noon CDT. U-M is on a program-record 20-match win streak and is looking for its first round of 16 win in school history.
Dual-Match Format
The remaining dual matches will be a contest for the best-of-seven team points. The dual will begin with three doubles matches consisting of eight-game pro sets. The team that wins two of these three matches will enter the singles competition with one of seven points. After a brief intermission, six singles matches will be played. Each singles match will be the best of three tie-break sets and worth one point towards the team competition. The overall dual match will be decided when one team secures four total points. Singles matches in progress when the dual match is clinched will be abandoned in postseason action.
WOLVERINE BITES
• Michigan is making its 14th straight NCAA Tournament appearance in this year's event. This is U-M's sixth trip to the team finals site (1997, 2010-13, 2015) and first since the 2013 season. Michigan is looking for its first round of 16 win in program history. U-M is 21-16 all-time in the NCAA Tournament after a pair of wins this past weekend (May 8-9) over Miami (Ohio) and DePaul.
• The senior class of Emina Bektas, Kristen Dodge and Sarah Lee has combined to go 92-22 the past four seasons, including a 42-2 mark in Big Ten action. The trio has tied the all-time mark for wins by a class at Michigan with Mimi Nguyen (2010-13).
• Michigan moved up to No. 11 in the last ITA rankings until the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament after wrapping up the Big Ten Tournament title. Georgia, the No. 6 seed for the NCAA Tournament, is ranked No. 7.
• First up for the Wolverines in Waco, Texas, is No. 6 seed Georgia, who knocked off Michigan earlier this season at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. With a U-M win on Friday (May 15), the Wolverines would face the winner of No. 3 seed California and No. 14 seed Stanford in quarterfinal action.
• U-M is on a program-best 20-match winning streak entering the third round of the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines feature 26 wins on the season, the most ever by a women's tennis team at U-M. The previous best was 24, which was achieved in 2010 and 2011. Michigan has not dropped a match since a 5-2 loss to No. 2 seed North Carolina on Feb. 22.
• The Maize and Blue punched its ticket to Waco by knocking off DePaul, 4-2, in second round action in Ann Arbor on Saturday afternoon (May 9). U-M won the doubles point and Sarah Lee quickly put the second point on the board with a win at No. 3. DePaul evened the score at 2-2 with wins at No. 4 and No.6, but senior Emina Bektas and freshman Mira Ruder-Hook each followed with wins at No. 1 and No. 5, respectively, to wrap up the win.
• Freshman Mira Ruder-Hook won her first postseason match in impressive fashion, clinching Michigan's 4-2 win over DePaul on Saturday (May 9). Junior Ronit Yurovsky and senior Sarah Lee lead U-M in matches clinched this season, each with six. Freshman Alex Najarian has clinched five, sophomore Sara Remynse has clinched four, Ruder-Hook has three match-clinching wins and senior Emina Bektas has been the deciding match twice this season.
• With the NCAA Championship being held outdoors, Michigan has had the opportunity to get outside 10 times this season to get used to playing in the elements. U-M is a perfect 10-0 in matches held outside.
About the Opponent
No. 6 Georgia -- The Bulldogs (22-6) knocked off Charleston Southern (4-0) and Duke (4-0) to advance to the round of 16 for the fifth straight season. Georgia features seven ranked singles players in No. 5 Lauren Herring, No. 63 Ellen Perez, No. 59 Kennedy Shaffer, No. 88 Hannah King, No. 94 Silvia Garcia, No. 104 Carolina Brinson and No. 114 Mariana Gould. On the doubles side, UGA has three ranked teams, led by No. 11 Herring and Perez. Georgia leads the all-time series, 3-0.
• Friday's match (May 15) against Georgia will mark the second time in school history that Michigan is facing a repeat opponent in the Sweet 16. The Wolverines faced Georgia earlier this season at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship (Feb. 6), falling 4-1 to the then-ranked No. 9 Bulldogs. Freshman Alex Najarian accounted for Michigan's point, winning at the No. 4 singles position. In 2011, U-M squared off against Miami in the third round of the NCAA Championship after facing the Hurricanes earlier in the season in Coral Gables.
• After dropping the doubles point to Northwestern (March 28), head coach Ronni Bernstein made a change at No.3. She inserted sophomore Sara Remynse into the doubles lineup for the first time during the dual-match season. The move paid off as Remynse and freshman Mira Ruder-Hook clinched the doubles point in the very next match for U-M against Illinois (March 29) with an 8-1 win. Remynse and Ruder-Hook are 7-1 at the No. 3 spot as Michigan has won 24 doubles points this season. The pair also is 2-0 in the NCAA Tournament after two wins this past weekend.
• Senior Emina Bektas was a unanimous choice for Big Ten Athlete of the Year, highlighting Michigan's Big Ten award winners. Bektas, along with freshman Alex Najarian, senior Sarah Lee and junior Ronit Yurovsky, also garnered All-Big Ten honors. [ Release ]
• U-M is on a 20-match winning streak, its longest in program history. During that span, Michigan has outscored its opponents, 113-12. The Maize and Blue has won 19 of the 20 doubles points and has never surrendered more than two points to a foe during the winning streak. Michigan's previous longest win streak in program history was 16 matches, which came during the 2008 and 2010 seasons.
• Emina Bektas, Ronit Yurovsky and Alex Najarian will be at Baylor through next week as the trio will compete in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Bektas qualified for her fourth straight singles tournament, while Yurovsky is competing for the third straight season in singles. Najarian and Bektas will team up to play in the doubles tournament. The singles tournament begins on May 20, with the doubles tournament beginning on May 21.
• For the second straight season, Michigan has a trio of 30-match winners. Senior Sarah Lee leads Michigan with a career-best 34 wins for her third 30-win season of her career. Junior Ronit Yurovsky boasts a career-high 33 wins and senior Emina Bektas also has 33 victories for the third 30-win campaign of her career. There have been 17 30-win seasons in school history.
• Emina Bektas and Sarah Lee are at the top of Michigan's singles wins list, becoming the first teammates to each win at least 100 singles matches. Bektas is at the top of U-M's list with 129 singles wins, with Lee right behind her in second with 124 wins.
• Senior Emina Bektas is two doubles wins away from tying Brooke Bolender's school record of 121 wins on the doubles court. Bektas is 119-36 all-time in doubles and is 129-35 in singles as Michigan's career leader in combined wins. Bolender is second on the combined wins list (233), while senior Sarah Lee comes in at third on the combined wins list with a total of 229 wins (124 singles wins, 105 doubles wins).
• Michigan carries a 119-28 mark (.810) in singles action and 49-13 record (.790) in doubles play in dual matches after the NCAA Regional. U-M has surrendered just 33 points on the year, 28 coming in singles and five coming via the doubles point.
• Michigan completed its second straight 11-0 Big Ten season with a 6-1 win at Ohio State (April 17) and a 4-0 victory at Penn State (April 19). It was the fifth perfect conference season for U-M in program history -- 1997, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015. Since the Big Ten expanded to an 11-match season in 2012, Michigan is the only team to go 11-0.
• Senior Sarah Lee is the owner of Michigan's longest singles winning streak as she is currently on an 18-match win streak. Senior Emina Bektas has won 17 in a row, while junior Ronit Yurovsky is at 12 straight wins.
• Michigan reached the 20-win plateau for the sixth straight season and the eighth time in program history. U-M has won a program-best 26 matches this season entering the third round of the NCAA Championship.
• In the individual rankings, senior Emina Bektas comes in at No. 27 this week, while junior Ronit Yurovsky is right behind her at No. 31. Senior Sarah Lee is back in the rankings for the fourth straight week, coming in at No. 111. In doubles, Bektas and freshman Alex Najarian are ranked No. 15 as Michigan's lone ranked doubles team.
• Every Wolverine who has played a singles match during the dual-match portion of the season has won at least one match. All eight Wolverines who have seen dual-match action have at least a .500 record.
• The senior class of Emina Bektas, Sarah Lee and Kristen Dodge will each serve as captains during the 2014-15 season.
• Head coach Ronni Bernstein is in her eighth season as Michigan's head coach. U-M is 177-45 under Bernstein, including an 80-4 mark in Big Ten play. Bernstein has been named the Big Ten Coach of the Year five times as Michigan has won six conference championships under the eighth-year head coach.
Communications Contact: Sarah VanMetre (734) 763-4423
