Oct. 7, 2009
PACIFIC PALICADES, Calif. - Texas A&M's Morgan Frank and Elzé Potgieter's run at the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships came to an end at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palicades, Calif.
After winning three doubles matches in the pre-qualifier rounds last weekend, the Aggie tandem opened the qualifying first round with an 8-6 victory over 24th-ranked Berkeley Brock and Lenka Hojckova of North Carolina State to advance to the round of 16. That is where the Aggies' run came to an end as they fell, 8-5, to Clemson's 14th-ranked and No. 4 seed Josipa Bek and Ina Hadziselimovic, a pair of returning All-Americans who advanced to the quarterfinals at last year's NCAA Doubles Championships in College Station.
"Morgan and Elzé did a great job and learned a lot in this tournament," A&M Bobby Kleinecke said. "In the end, we just lost to a better team. We had an early lead but then gave away a few cheap points, and the other team got on a roll. But overall, I was very pleased with our showing."
Potgieter also was eliminated in the second round of the qualifying singles tournament. The senior from South Africa posted an impressive 6-2, 6-3 first-round victory over 26th-ranked and No. 4 seed Mari Andersson of California before falling to 56th-ranked Karina Zheltova of Sacramento State, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, in the second round.
"Elzé had a great win in the first round of singles and played excellent in the second round, too" Kleinecke said. "The second match lasted more than three hours and was a great ground stroking match. It was kind of cold, and I think Elzé's back stiffened up a little bit during the break between the second and third sets, but she gave all she had."
The Aggies return to action Oct. 16-20 at the ITA Texas Regional, to be hosted by Baylor in Waco, Texas. The singles finalists and the doubles champion earn an automatic berth into the ITA National Indoor Championships, Nov. 5-8 in New Haven, Conn.
Riviera/ITA All-American Championships - A&M Results
Doubles - Qualifier
Frank/Potgieter (Texas A&M) def. (24) Brock/Hojckova (North Carolina State), 8-6
(14) Bek/Hadziselimovic (Clemson) def. Frank/Potgieter (Texas A&M), 8-5
Singles - Qualifier
(80) Elzé Potgieter (Texas A&M) def. (26) Mari Andersson (California), 6-2, 6-3
(56) Karina Zheltova (Sacramento State) def. Elzé Potgieter (Texas A&M), 7-5, 5-7, 6-2
Doubles - Prequalifer
Frank/Potgieter (Texas A&M) def.Esposito/Belassi (Colorado), 9-8
Frank/Potgieter (Texas A&M) def. McLane/Guarachi (Alabama), 8-5
Frank/Potgieter (Texas A&M) def.Byron/Hammel (UC Irvine), 8-5
Davidson/Urbina (Texas A&M) def. Flower/Keesey (Ohio State), 8-1
Alexander/Babanova (TCU) def. Davidson/Urbina (Texas A&M), 8-2
Singles - Prequalifer
Claire Bartlett (Florida) def. Morgan Frank (Texas A&M), 7-5, 1-6, 6-3