May 27, 2005
ATHENS, Ga. - Baylor's Zuzana Zemenova advanced to the finals of the NCAA Singles tournament at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., on Friday morning, setting up an all-freshman final for the first time since 1997.
Zemenova, a freshman, will take on Northwestern's Audra Cohen, also a freshman, in the finals on Saturday at 12 p.m. (CDT). Saturday's final match will be the first time since 1982 that a player from either the Pac-10 or the SEC has not qualified. If Zemenova wins, she would become just the third international player to win an NCAA singles title, joining San Diego's Zuzana Lesenarova (Czech/1999) and Duke's Vanessa Webb (Canada/1998).
Zemenova becomes just the fifth unseeded player to advance to the NCAA singles final, and she will attempt to become the first unseeded NCAA champion ever. The other four unseeded player to reach the final -- Ania Bleszynski of Stanford in 1998, M.C. White of Florida in 1997, Keri Phebus of UCLA in 1994 and Gigi Fernandez of Clemson in 1983 -- all lost. The lowest seed to ever win the NCAA singles crown was Stanford's Laura Granville as a 9-16 alphabetical seed in 2000.
Either Cohen or Zemenova will become the sixth freshman to win the NCAA singles title. Stanford's Amber Liu was the last first-year player to capture the crown in 2003. The others are: Stanford's Laura Granville in 2000, Stanford's Lilia Osterloh in 1997, Florida's Lisa Raymond in 1992 and Beth Herr of Southen California in 1983. The last all-freshman final occured in 1997 when Osterloh defeated Florida's M.C. White.
Cohen or Zemenova will become the first player from either the Big Ten Conference or the Big 12 Conference to capture the NCAA singles crown. In fact, Cohen is the first Big Ten player ever to reach the NCAA final. Zemenova is the third Big 12 player to advance to the final, following a pair of top seeds in 1995 and 1996. In 1996, Kansas' Kylie Hunt fell to Florida's Jill Craybas. In 1995, Texas' Kelly Pace lost to Keri Phebus of UCLA in the championship.
Zemenova advanced to the championship match by defeating the tournament's No. 5 seed, Jennifer Magley of Florida. The Kosice, Slovakia, native posted a straight sets win over Magley, 7-5, 6-4. In the second match, Zemenova broke Cohen's serve early then held her serves to post the victory. Cohen defeated unseeded Riza Zlalmeda of UCLA, also in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Zemenova has won 25 of her last 27 outings, including straight-set victories in 21 of those matches and has advanced to the finals of the NCAA Singles Tournament. Prior to Zemenova's advancement to the finals, Baylor had never even had a player reach the quarterfinals of the singles tournament. She has a season singles record of 28-5, which ties for 9th most wins in Baylor history. In addition, Zemenova is 15-4 versus ranked opponents. She earned one tournament crown during her freshman season at the Ballantrae Challenger in Birmingham, Ala., in mid-October. Zemenova has also been named Big 12 Player of the Year, Big 12 Freshman of the Year, is an All-Big 12 Selection and Big 12 Champion at No. 1 position with a 9-0 mark. The newcomer was also named Southwest Region's Rookie of the Year.
"I think we learned a lot from the first match they played (in the team portion). We were able to comprise a game plan to play to ZZ's strengths and exploit Magley's weaknesses. Magley did a good job of making adjustments though," said Baylor head coach Joey Scrivano.
