May 25, 2011
STANFORD, Calif. - Texas A&M sophomore Nazari Urbina was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Division I Women's Singles Tennis Championship, falling to 30th-ranked Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar of Maryland, 6-3, 6-4 today at the Taube Tennis Center.
"(Sanchez-Quintanar) was just a really good, athletic player who didn't hurt herself or give away any points," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "Nazari didn't play her best but wasn't bad. She did some things well but just had to keep changing her game, yet the other girl didn't have anything to exploit."
Urbina, ranked No. 26, held a 3-2 lead before Sanchez-Quintanar reeled off four consecutive games to win the first set. Sanchez-Quintanar, who had a lethal backhand down the line as well as an effective looping forehand, then won the first two sets of the second set and never trailed the remainder of the match. Urbina trailed 5-2 but got within 5-4 before Sanchez-Quintanar won the next game to clinch the match.
Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico), who last year became the first freshman in Texas A&M history to play in the NCAA Singles Championship, finishes 28-10 (.737) overall in 2010-11, including 16-8 against ranked opponents. Four of those losses were against opponents currently ranked in the top 10.
"I am proud of the year Nazari had," Kleinecke said. "She stepped up her game this year, but today's match gives her more to work on."
Urbina, who has been ranked as high as No. 11 in singles this year, helped lead the Aggies to a 15-9 final record and a 12th consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament, where the Aggies fell to SMU, 4-3, in the first round. She went 16-6 in dual matches all at the No. 1 line.
Sanchez-Quintanar, a junior who began competing for the Terps in January, improves to 17-4, including 6-4 against ranked opponents. An All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection, Sanchez-Quintanar advances to the second round to face the winner between 13th-ranked and No. 9-16 seed Zoe De Bruycker of North Carolina and 22nd-ranked Mallory Burdette of Stanford on Thursday.