Miller Wins Singles Championship, Benik and Suvak Take Doubles Title
10/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
TUSCALOOSA ?? The 2006 Wilson/ITA Fall South Regional Championships concluded on Sunday at the University of Alabama tennis stadium. Georgia Tech's Kristi Miller won two tiebreakers to claim the flight A singles championship. Florida's Whitney Benik and Nina Suvak rallied to win the flight A doubles championship.
The two singles finalists and the doubles champion of the singles and doubles flight A bracket qualified for the 2006 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships Nov. 2-5 at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Miller, the defending regional champion and top seed in the tournament, faced her teammate Kirsten Flower in the finals. The first set was neck-and-neck with neither player holding more than a game lead throughout the set. Trailing 6-5, Miller tied the score to force a tiebreaker. She fell behind 3-0 to start the breaker and was down 5-2 before Flower hit two balls wide and one in to the net to bring the score to a 5-5 tie. Miller capitalized on the mistakes and scored the next two points to give her five straight and the 7-6 (5) win in the first set.
"It was tough to play a teammate," said Miller. "I have only done it once before in the regionals last year. To play in the finals and play a freshman is a lot of pressure and there were times when I should have been playing the ball instead of my opponent. It is tough to find a level of intensity, especially at the beginning, because you are teammates but both of you want to win."
Flower jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the second set and was close to forcing a third set when she took a 5-3 lead. However, Miller showed why she was ranked second in the country and rallied back to take three straight games and take a 6-5 lead. Flower took the next game to force a second straight tiebreaker. She scored the first point but Miller would win six of the next eight and eventually close it out with a 7-4 tiebreaker win to take the championship.
"It is definitely exciting and was a goal of mine to win the regional championship," said Miller. "It is an honor to be able to go and play with all the great players. It is really tough. I have had to pull out a lot of close two-setters this week and have been down in the second set a couple of times. It was a good test of how I am mentally and if I was mentally tough enough to close those matches out in two sets."
The doubles championship came down to a match between Florida's Benik and Suvak and Florida State's MacFarlane and Slater. The Seminole's duo gained the first point but the Gator's pair took the next two to steal the lead. MacFarlane and Slater would bounce back with two straight points to make it 3-2. After the two teams exchanged points to put the score at 4-3 in favor of Florida State, the Seminole's team won two straight games to increase their lead to 6-3. Benik and Suvak clawed their way back into the match with the next two points. MacFarlane and Slater put themselves in position for a victory when they took a 7-5 lead but the Florida duo would stage off elimination and win four straight games to win the championship 9-7.
"I went to the National Indoors as a freshman with my partner," said Benik. We won the All-American tournament, but to win regionals and qualify is an even better feeling. When we were behind we didn't think about being down. We just try to have fun and play each point and whatever happens, happens."
The other ITA South Regional final matches were also on Sunday. Jil Hasternath of Auburn won the B singles championship with a 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 win against Annabelle Bares of Troy. Georgia Tech's Amanda McDowell defeated Csilla Borsanyi of Florida in three sets 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the A singles consolation. Troy's Caroline Jounia took the B singles consolation championship with a walkover from Zoe Kent of Central Florida. Florida State's Miranda Foley and Carolin Walter won the B doubles title with an 8-6 win against Gulsah Esen and Nischa Maier-Knapp of UAB.
Alabama wrapped up its tournament on Sunday with a consolation B singles match and flight B doubles contest. Bianca Svensson had advanced to the B singles semifinals with two wins on Saturday. She took on Jounia and fell in three sets. Jounia won the first set 6-3, Svennson switched the score around for a 6-3 victory in the second set, but at the end it was Jounia taking the match with a 6-3 win in the third set.
Svensson also teamed up with Shelley Godwin in the B doubles semifinals. After falling behind 1-0 to Esen and Maier-Knapp of UAB, the Alabama duo won two straight games to take a 2-1 lead. The UAB pair followed by winning three straight to go in front by two, 4-2. Svensson and Godwin fought back to tie the match at 4-4 but Esen and Maier-Knapp answered with three straight to take a 7-4 lead. They would go on to win the match 8-5.
"We identified the things that we really need to work on," said Alabama head coach Jenny Mainz. "You have to be ready to compete on every point and you have to be ready to play on every point. We needed these matches and it was nice to host the tournament. We didn't do as well as we would have liked to but there were bright spots. Bianca Svensson did a great job of competing throughout the event and worked her way through some tough three-set matches. Shelley (Godwin) gained a lot of confidence and played more commanding tennis than she has played all season."
The University of Alabama will conclude the fall Nov. 2-5 when they compete in the SEC Fall Coach's Classic in Athens, Ga.
