NCAA Championships Doubles Bracket in PDF Format
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NCAA Championships Singles Bracket in PDF FormatDownload Free Acrobat Reader
May 21, 2005
ATHENS, Ga. - Ever since Northwestern's women's tennis team fell to Clemson Thursday in the NCAA Championship's round of 16, freshman Audra Cohen (Plantation, Fla., St. Thomas Aquinas) and junior Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England, Putney) have been chomping at the tennis bit down in Athens, Ga.
"Balloon animals can only keep you entertained for so long," says Cohen, "At this point, we're both extremely focused and ready to play some tennis."
Three days. Count them, three days of no competition. Well, Monday, May 23, the pair of Wildcats get to satisfy their thirst for competition, as singles action in the 2005 NCAA Championships begins.
At 9 a.m. CT Monday, Cohen and Grier will kick the tires and start their run through the 64-player tournament. They are on opposite sides of the bracket, setting up a potential fourth tournament championship match between the two this year (Rice Classic, ITA All-American Championship and ITA Midwest Regional Championship -- all of which Cohen won).
Complete NCAA Championships information is available at UGA's tournament website and the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship page
Cohen -- seeded third in the tournament and ranked fourth in the national polls -- will face Dea Sumantri of Washington in the first round. Outside of Sumantri, Cohen could face a few ghosts of her young collegiate tennis' past while in Athens. Four of the measly six people Cohen has lost to this year are in her half of the NCAA draw: Courtney Bergman of Harvard (4-6, 7-5, 1-6), Julie Coin of Clemson (6-3, 3-6, 4-6), Suzi Babos of California (6-4, 2-6, 4-6) and Nicole Leimbach of USC (6-3, 5-7, 4-6). All four needed three sets to beat NU's freshman phenom. The only person to beat Cohen in straight sets this year is Catrina Thompson of Notre Dame (2-6, 2-6), who is unseeded and in Grier's half of the draw.
Despite a relatively tough draw, Cohen has some serious wins over some serious competition that make her a serious favorite to win it all this year. The freshman has defeated top-seeded Megan Bradley of Miami, Fla. (Oct. 8), second-seeded Coin (Oct. 9), fourth-seeded Aibika Kalsarieva of Kentucky (Jan. 30) and fifth-seeded Jennifer Magley of Florida (Oct. 7).
Grier will face Marianna Yuferova of Virginia Commonwealth University in her first-round match. A win there could see Grier face top-seeded Bradley in the second round, whom she has not faced this year. Grier advanced to the quarterfinals last year, where Coin defeated her in three sets.
As a doubles tandem, Cohen a Grier -- seeded second -- will begin competition Tuesday, May 24 against Gabriella Duch and Neyssa Etienne of South Florida. Although the Wildcat duo has been in a slump lately (dropping four of their last five) they still stake claim to the nation's top ranking 15 out of a possible 18 weeks this season.
Michelle DaCosta and Kara Delicata of Michigan could face the `Cats on day two of doubles competition, posing a significant second-round challenge. The Wolverine duo beat the NU pair most recently, 8-6, in the Big Ten Championship match (5/1). But in the regular season, Cohen and Grier came back from a nearly improbable 7-3 deficit to beat the DaCosta and Delicata, 9-7.