May 23, 2008

Tulsa, Oklahoma - The NCAA Tennis Championships is down to the quarterfinals for both singles and doubles as competition continued Friday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center on the campus of The University of Tulsa.

Two players from each of the No.2-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and the Pepperdine men's teams advanced to the quarterfinals, as did defending national champion and No. 1-seeded Somdev Devarrman of Virginia. Devarrman is the only one of the top-4 seeds remaining on the men's side. The Baylor women also had two individuals advance to the quarterfinals.

The two Pepperdine players ousted two of the top-4 seeds on Friday. Andre Begemann defeated the No. 3 seed Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, 6-3, 7-5, while teammate Bassam Beidas handled No. 4 seed Travis Helgeson of Georgia by a score of 6-1, 6-4.

For the women, No. 1 seed Aurelija Miseviciute of Arkansas had a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Miami's Laura Vallverdu and will face the team tournament's Most Outstanding Player Riza Zalameda of UCLA in the quarterfinals. The No. 2 seed Ani Mijacika of Clemson was ousted by Auburn's Fani Chifchieva in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, while the No. 4 seed, Maria Mosolova of Northwestern, joins Arkansas' Miseviciute as two of the top-4 seeds still alive.

The 2005 NCAA women's champion, Zuzana Zemenova of Baylor, advanced in singles play with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Fresno State's Melanie Gloria, and faces Mosolova tomorrow, while her teammate Lenka Broosova also moved on to the quarterfinals.

In doubles, the top-4 seeds for the women advanced to the quarterfinals, while on the men's side the No. 2 and 4 seeds remained alive. Ole Miss has two men's doubles teams still participating, including the fourth-seeded team of Jonas Berg and Erling Tveit.

The No. 1 seeded team of Virginia's Devarrman and Treat Huey was defeated 6-3, 6-4 by Texas A&M's pair of Austin Krajicek and Conor Pollock, while the second Ole Miss team of Bram ten Berge and Matthias Wellermann ousted the No-3 sed of Miami's Carl Sundberg and Daniel Vallverdu.

Singles play begins on Saturday at 12 noon, and doubles play starts at 1:00 pm.

NOTES

• The nation's No. 1-ranked men's doubles team of Virginia's Somdev Devvarman/Tret Huey lost today against Texas A&M's Austin Krajicek/Conor Pollock. The duo completed the season with a 38-5 record.

• Future husband and wife played on side-by-side courts today. Tulsa's Andy Connelly (w/ teammate Ross Cunningham) played on Court 1 on Friday afternoon at 2 pm, while his fiancée, Notre Dame's Brook Buck (w/ teammate Kelcy Tefft) played on the next court, Court 2, at 2:30 pm. Both doubles teams won and advanced to the quarterfinal round. The wedding is planned for June 28th.

• Only three players still remain in both the singles and doubles tournament. On the women's side it's UCLA's Riza Zalameda and USC's Amanda Fink, and for the men it's Ohio State's Justin Kronauge.