May 12, 1997
California Heads to NCAA Championships
THIS WEEK:
April 15-24
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Stanford
All Day
THE MATCH-UP:
The 11th-ranked California women's tennis team, 15-7 overall, 5-5 in the Pac-10 southern division, travels to the NCAA Women's Tennis Championships at Stanford, May 15-24. The Bears will participate in the team competition, May 15-18, and will have strong representation in the individual championships which run May 19-23.
THE LINEUPS:
Seven Cal players are expected to see action this week. The tentative singles lineup includes; Amanda Augustus, Francesca La'O, Claire Curran, Stephanie Tibbits, Esther Knox and Lisa Swierniak. Expect to see teams of Augustus/Curran, La'O/Knox and Swierniak/Tibbits or Jenny Lee in doubles play.
THE COMPETITION:
Cal enters the tournament field as one of 10 teams that advanced to the championships without needing to go through regional qualifying. Other institutions that earned byes at the regional level include: Arizona, Arizona State, Duke, Florida, Georgia, Stanford, Texas, UCLA and Wake Forest. Qualifying bids were extended to each of the regional tournament champions. These universities include: Michigan, Mississippi, Tennessee, Pepperdine, William & Mary, and Wisconsin.
THE SCHEDULE:
Cal begins competition on Thursday, May 15, with a first-round match against Wake Forest at 1:30 p.m. Should the Bears advance, they will face the winner of the Duke-Pepperdine match at noon of May 16. Looking down the bracket, a Bear semifinal match would be May 17 at noon, with the final slated for noon on Sunday, May 18.
CAL INDIVIDUALS:
Following the team national championship competition, 64 individuals as well as the top 32 doubles teams will compete for NCAA individual championships. The Bears find themselves represented in this group in both the singles and doubles brackets. Cal singles players include sophomore All-Americans Amanda Augustus and Francesca La'O, as well as, freshman Esther Knox. In doubles action, Augustus will team with freshman Claire Curran.
RESULTS:
Full results will be updated 2-3 times a day on the World Wide Web on the Stanford Women's Tennis hompage at http://www.gostanford.com/sports/w-tennis/stan-w-tennis-frame.html. The results will also be posted on the Cal W-Tennis page each day following the conclusion of play at www.calbears.com.
CAL IN THE RANKINGS:
The Bears are currently the No. 11-ranked team on the ITA's Spring No. 4 Charts, released April 29. Individually, Cal players rank as follows:
Singles
25. Amanda Augustus (so.)
32. Francesca La'O (so.)
47. Esther Knox (fr.)
91. Lisa Swierniak (fr.)
Doubles
15. Amanda Augustus (so.)/Claire Curran (fr.)
54. Francesca La'O (so.)/Esther Knox (fr.)
THE COACHES:
One of the Top 10 winningest coaches in women's collegiate tennis, Jan Brogan is in her 19th year as the Bears head coach with a career record of 342-139(.711). She is joined by first-year assistant Ann Henricksson, who spent more than 15 years on the women's professional tour.
