A&M's Urbina Set to Open NCAA Women's Tennis Singles Championship
May 24, 2011 | Women's Tennis
May 24, 2011
2011 NCAA Women's Tennis Singles Bracket 
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M sophomore Nazari Urbina begins competition at the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Singles Championship on Wednesday and will face 30th-ranked Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar of Maryland in the first round of the 64-player, single-elimination tournament.
First serve is slated for 6 p.m. (4 p.m. PT) at the Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif. The tournament concludes May 30 with the championship match.
Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico), who last year became the first freshman in Texas A&M history to play in the NCAA Singles Championship, is ranked No. 26 in the nation in singles. A two-time All-Big 12 selection in singles, Urbina is 27-9 overall in 2010-11, including 16-7 against ranked opponents. Four of those losses were against opponents currently ranked in the top 10.
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 and enters the tournament coming off back-to-back career highs for ranked wins. She defeated then 11th-ranked Sona Novakova of Baylor, 6-2, 6-1, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship on April 30 in Waco, Texas, and then topped ninth-ranked and two-time Conference USA Player of the Year Marta Lesniak, of SMU, 0-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the first round of the NCAA team championship on May 14 in College Station.
At No. 26, Urbina is the third highest ranked player of the six athletes representing the Big 12 in the championship, although she posted wins against both Novakova, who is currently No. 14, and 21st-ranked Aeriel Ellis of Texas.
Sanchez-Quintanar, a junior who began competing for the Terps in January, went 16-4 in dual matches, including 5-4 against ranked opponents. An All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection, Sanchez-Quintanar also will compete in the NCAA Doubles Championship with partner Jordaan Stanford.
Urbina and Sanchez-Quintanar are both 2-1 against common opponents in 2010-11. Urbina has wins against No. 13 Josipa Bek of Clemson and No. 25 Nadine Fahoum of Duke. Her loss was against No. 45 Martina Pavelec of Wake Forest.
Sanchez-Quintanar defeated both Fahoum and Pavelec and fell to Bek.
The winner between Urbina and 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 at a time to be announced.
Check http://www.streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/livescoreboard1.html for free live video and scoring of the matches.
Players Mentioned
