Texas A&M Faces Denver in NCAA Championship First Round

Friday, May 13

Palo Alto, Calif.

1:00 PM

Texas A&M

Denver

Photo by: Texas A&M Athletics

May 12, 2016 | Women's Tennis

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

No. 19 Texas A&M (16-10) vs. No. 48 Denver (21-2)
NCAA Championship, First Round
Friday, May 13, 11 a.m. (1 p.m. CT)
Taube Family Tennis Stadium, Stanford, California
Live Scoring/Live Video

TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

Nineteenth-ranked Texas A&M (16-10) received an at-large bid to the 64-team NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship and will open against the 48th-ranked Denver Pioneers on Friday at 11 a.m. (1 p.m. CT) at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium in Stanford, California.
The winner faces the winner between No. 15 seed Stanford (14-5) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (24-0) in second round action on Saturday at noon (2 p.m. CT) also at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
The second-round winner advances to the round of 16 and the final championship site, the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, May 19-24, with the University of Tulsa serving as host.
Links to live scoring/video will be available at 12thMan.com.
Single-day tickets are $8 (adult) and $5 (student/youth/senior) and are available for purchase either in person, by calling 1-800-STANFORD or visiting www.gostanford.com. Phone orders will be available at will call. All seats are general admission.

TEXAS A&M NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

Texas A&M is making its 17th consecutive and 22nd overall appearance in the NCAA Championship.
The Aggies are 21-21 all-time in NCAA matches.
Texas A&M's best NCAA tournament finish in program history was runner-up in 2013, when the Aggies fell to Stanford, 4-3, in the championship match at Urbana, Illinois.
Last year, No. 10 seed Texas A&M reached the Sweet 16 for a third consecutive year and the fourth time in school history, defeating Alcorn State, 5-0, and TCU, 4-0, in the first two rounds at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas, before falling to No. 7 seed UCLA, 4-1, in Waco, Texas.
Texas A&M is 7-10 against the 2016 tournament field.
Texas A&M is one of 11 teams representing the Southeastern Conference in the 2016 NCAA tournament field. Florida, the SEC regular season and tournament champion, is the league's automatic qualifier and received a conference-high No. 2 seed. Georgia is the No. 5 seed, and defending national champion Vanderbilt is No. 6, followed by No. 11 Auburn and No. 13 South Carolina. Other SEC teams in the tournament are Arkansas, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

PROJECTED TEXAS A&M LINEUP
                                                                                                               Overall    Dual                                                                                                               SEC
1 Singles: #24 Saska Gavrilovska (Jr., Vrsac, Serbia)                           18-10       10-7                                                                                                               7-6
2 Singles: #69 Rutuja Bhosale (Jr., Pune, India)                                 19-11       13-7                                                                                                               7-5
3 Singles: Rachel Pierson (Jr., Princeton, N.J.)                                    15-13       13-10                                                                                                               7-5
4 Singles: Ines Deheza (Sr., Santa Cruz, Bolivia)                                 19-8         13-5                                                                                                               8-3
5 Singles: Domenica Gonzalez (Fr., Guayaquil, Ecuador)                  19-11       13-7                                                                                                               6-4
6 Singles: Eva Paalma (So., Tallinn, Estonia)                                      12-10       7-8                                                                                                               2-6
Others available: Anna Mamalat (Sr., Philadelphia, Pa.)
                                                                                                               Overall     Dual      SEC
1 Doubles: #35 Paalma/Pierson                                                            11-13      11-11 7-6
2 Doubles: #75 Bhosale/Mamalat                                                          22-5        14-3 7-1
3 Doubles: Deheza/Gavrilovska                                                              2-2          2-2 0-0

SERIES RECORDS

Texas A&M is 1-0 all-time against Denver. In the only previous meeting, the Aggies won their 2009 season opener by defeating Denver, 4-3, at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station.
Texas A&M is 0-3 all-time against Stanford, meeting once in College Station, once in Stanford and once in Urbana, Illinois.
The last two meetings have been in an NCAA tournament match. The teams most recently met in the 2013 NCAA Championship final in Urbana, Illinois, where Texas A&M, making its first-ever NCAA final, fell to Stanford, 4-3. The Cardinal's 25th-ranked Kristie Ahn topped Texas A&M's Cristina Stancu at the No. 2 line, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, in the last match standing, to clinch Stanford's 17th NCAA women's tennis title.
In the only meeting at Stanford, Texas A&M fell to the Cardinal, 4-1, in the second round of the 2008 NCAA tournament.
Texas A&M and Stanford met for the first time on March 26, 1998 in College Station, where the No. 1 Cardinal topped A&M, 5-1.
Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi have never met.

OPPONENT NOTES

The Denver Pioneers (21-2) won their third consecutive Summit League title, defeating South Dakota State, 4-0, in the tournament finals to earn their third straight automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
Denver is 1-5 all-time in five previous NCAA tournament appearances. Last year, the Pioneers fell to No. 23 Ole Miss, 4-1, in the first round.
Denver won its only NCAA match in 2008 when the 17-32 seed Pioneers defeated No. 33-48 seed Long Beach State, 4-0, in the first round. Denver was eliminated in the second round, falling, 4-0, to eventual national champion UCLA.
The Pioneers enter the match against Texas A&M riding a 14-match win streak, as they have not lost since No. 71 New Mexico topped then-No. 56 Denver, 4-3, on Feb. 12 in Albuquerque.
Junior Julia O'Loughlin is riding a nine-match winning streak in singles and leads the Pioneers with a 20-2 dual match record, all at the No. 1 line.
Morgan Barnhill and Bianca Mok are 18-1 in doubles and enter the NCAAs riding a 16-match win streak.
Christian Thompson (Notre Dame '07) is in her third season as head coach of the Pioneers.
No. 15 Stanford (14-5, 9-1 Pac-12) is making its 35th consecutive NCAA appearance.
The Cardinal are 136-18 all-time in NCAA matches and have won 17 NCAA titles. Their most recent title came in 2013 when they held off Texas A&M 4-3 in the final match in Urbana, Illinois.
Last year, Stanford was the No. 14 seed and fell to No. 6 seed Georgia, 4-1, in the quarterfinals in Waco, Texas.
Four Stanford players are listed in the most recent ITA singles rankings: No. 25 Carol Zhao, No. 46 Taylor Davidson, No. 67 Caroline Doyle and No. 100 Krista Hardebeck.
Davidson and Doyle are No. 5 in the doubles rankings with a 22-7 overall record, including 9-5 in dual matches, and Zhao and Melissa Lord are No. 31.
Caroline Lampl leads Stanford in singles victories with a 25-5 overall mark.
Krista Hardebeck is a team-best 17-1 in dual matches only, going 11-1 at the No. 3 line and 6-0 at No. 4.
Hardebeck is the only current player on the team who competed in the Cardinal's 2013 national championship match. In doubles Hardebeck and Natalie Dillon defeated A&M's Ines and Paula Deheza, 8-5, at No. 3. In singles, A&M's 52nd-ranked Nazari Urbina defeated then-14th ranked Hardebeck, 6-3, 7-6 (3) at the No. 3 line.
Lele Forood (Stanford, 1978) is in her 16th year as head coach of the Cardinal.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (24-0) has achieved the first ever perfect season in school history of any Islander sport.
After securing a Southland Conference regular season championship, the Islanders won the SLC Championship by defeating Northwestern State, 4-2, in the final match of the tournament to earn an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
The Islanders have outscored their opponents a combined 126-20 in dual matches. A&M-Corpus Christi has allowed an opponent to score more than one point only six time this season.
The Islanders have posted a school-record 13 shutouts.
Senior Celia Rodriguez is the Islander's all-time winningest singles player with a 21-3 record.
Director of Tennis Steve Moore has led the Islanders in eight overall trips to the NCAA (six with the men's tennis team, two with women's). He earned his 10th consecutive Southland Coach of the Year honoring following the 2016 season.
Previously, Moore was a men's tennis assistant coach at Texas A&M under Hall-of-Fame coach Tim Cass from 2004-2006, and witnessed the Aggies' rise to a No. 9 national ranking and a Sweet 16 berth in the NCAA Tournament.

TEXAS A&M RECENT RESULTS

Texas A&M, which tied Mississippi State for sixth place in the SEC regular season, was the No. 6 seed at the 2016 SEC Championship, contested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, April 20-24. After a first-round bye, the Aggies defeated 12th-seeded Alabama, 4-0, in the second round before falling to No. 3 seed and fourth-ranked Georgia, 4-1, in the quarterfinals.
Against the Bulldogs, No. 18 Texas A&M lost a tightly contested battle for the doubles point, and the Aggies' comeback in singles fell short as they suffered a 4-1 loss to fourth-ranked Georgia.
The doubles point came down to the No. 3 court. The match was on serve at 4-4 before Georgia's Caroline Brinson and Laura Patterson won a no-ad point to break Texas A&M's Ines Deheza and Saska Gavrilovska. The Aggie duo broke back, winning a no-ad point in the ensuing game to put the match back on serve at 5-5. The next game also was tied 40-40, with Georgia once again winning the no-ad point to break and take a 6-5 lead. The Bulldogs then held serve to close out a 7-5 victory and clinch the doubles point.
Rachel Pierson was the only Texas A&M player to win a first set in singles. The junior from Princeton, New Jersey, who entered the match riding a four-match win streak, jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set against 97^th-ranked Garcia at the No. 3 line. Garcia got within 5-4 but was unable to hold her serve as Pierson went on to win, 6-4. The second set was on serve with Pierson up, 5-4, but Garcia double-faulted at match point to give Pierson the 6-4, 6-4 victory, putting the Aggies on the scoreboard but trailing 2-1.
Georgia got a straight-set win at No. 1 and three-set victories at Nos. 4 and 5 to advance to the semifinals.

TEXAS A&M IN THE ITA RANKINGS

Texas A&M has been in the Oracle/ITA Tennis rankings Top 25 every week this spring and enters the NCAA tournament ranked 19th.
The Aggies were No. 10 in the preseason ranking released Jan. 5, equaling the second highest preseason ranking in school history.
The Aggies were a season-high No. 9 on Jan. 27 after opening the season with wins against No. 73 South Alabama, No. 37 Wichita State and No. 15 Baylor.
Junior Saska Gavrilovska enters the NCAAs ranked a team-high and career-high No. 24 in singles.
Junior Rutuja Bhosale is ranked No. 69 in singles, her highest ranking since a career-high No. 50 listing in the 2015 fall preseason rankings.
Junior Rachel Pierson and sophomore Eva Paalma are a team-high No. 35 in doubles, and Bhosale and senior Anna Mamalat are No. 75.

GAVRILOVSKA INVITED TO THIRD NCAA INDIVIDUALS

Saska Gavrilovska will represent Texas A&M in the 64-player field at the 2016 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Singles Championship. In addition, Texas A&M's doubles team of Rachel Pierson and Eva Paalma has an outside chance of making the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship after being selected the fifth alternate.
Gavrilovska, who earned ITA All-America honors last year by reaching the NCAA singles round of 16, will be competing in the singles tournament for the third consecutive season. The junior from Serbia will become only the second Texas A&M player in program history to compete in the prestigious event each of the first three years of her career, joining former Aggie standout Nazari Urbina, who is Texas A&M's only four-time NCAA singles participant.
A member of the 2016 All-SEC first team, Gavrilovska is currently ranked No. 24 in the nation in singles with an 18-10 overall record. She enters the NCAA team championship 10-7 in dual matches, having played all but one match at the No. 1 line. Gavrilovska is 10-9 against ranked opponents in 2015-16.
Last year, Gavrilovska became Texas A&M's first-ever underclassman to reach the round of 16, as well as the program's first underclassman to achieve All-America distinction. The then-sophomore defeated Taylor Ng of Dartmouth, 6-4, 6-2, in the round of 64 and then upset No. 8 seed Sydney Campbell of Vanderbilt, 6-4, 6-3, to reach the round of 16 and earn All-America status. Gavrilovska, who entered the tournament ranked No. 54, then fell to No. 9-16 seed Stephanie Wagner of Miami, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, in a match that was interrupted several times by a light rain at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.
As a freshman, Gavrilovska fell to No. 9-16 seed and senior All-American Anett Schutting of California, 6-4, 6-1, in the opening round.
Pierson and Paalma are 11-13 overall, including an 11-11 record in dual matches only. The pair played in last year's NCAA Doubles Championship but was eliminated in the first round after falling to Desirae Krawczyk and Stephanie Vlad of Arizona State, 6-2, 6-3.
Should the tandem make this year's field, it will mark the third consecutive doubles appearance for Pierson, who played her freshman year at the University of Virginia, where she was a No. 5-8 seed with Cavaliers partner Julia Elbaba. The UVA duo suffered a first-round 6-3, 7-6 (8) loss to Brynn Boren and Zoe Katz of USC in Athens, Ga.
The singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 25-30 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, following the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 19-24. The University of Tulsa will serve as host.
All matches shall be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set. The draws for both tournaments will be announced May 24.
This is the seventh consecutive year and 15^th time overall A&M has been represented in the singles championships. A&M players are a combined 15-19 in singles matches since Kim Labuschagne became the first Aggie to compete in the postseason event in 1987. Labuschagne and Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar are tied for the best finish in school history, reaching the quarterfinals in 1987 and 2012, respectively.

TEXAS A&M HEAD COACH MARK WEAVER

First-year head coach Mark Weaver is the sixth head coach in the history of the Aggie women's tennis program.
Weaver's career at Texas A&M has come full circle, having begun his stint in Aggieland as a student-athlete and four-year standout on the Aggie men's tennis team from 1990-94. The Shreveport, La., native then served six years as a volunteer coach for the A&M women's team before being hired as the women's tennis assistant coach in 2007.
Weaver was honored as the 2014 ITA Texas Region Assistant Coach of the Year as the Aggies finished 21-7 and No. 9 in the final ITA rankings, the second highest final ranking in school history.
Texas A&M has advanced to the NCAA tournament every year Weaver has served in a coaching capacity for the women's team, including a historic national runner-up finish and SEC championship title in 2013 while he was an assistant coach, and the 2003 Big 12 Conference regular season title and the 2004 Big 12 tournament title when he was a volunteer assistant.

PARTING SHOTS

This is the first time in four years the Aggies will open the tournament on the road and not seeded.
In NCAA matches, Texas A&M is 9-11 all-time at neutral sites, 11-4 at home and 1-6 at away sites.
California is the No. 1 seed in the 2016 NCAA Championship and Vanderbilt is the defending national champion.
Texas A&M has advanced to the Sweet 16 four times in school history, including each of the last three years.
Texas A&M is 13-10 against nationally ranked opponents, with its highest ranked win being a 6-1 victory at then-No. 8 South Carolina on March 31.
A&M is 11-0 when No. 1 singles wins.
Texas A&M has won the doubles point in 15 of 26 matches and is 13-2 when winning the doubles point.
A&M has three seniors -- two active -- who were freshmen on the 2013 runner up team that fell to Stanford in the championship match. Anna Mamalat defeated Ellen Tsay, 6-1, 7-5, at No. 5 singles, and senior Stefania Hristov, who has missed the 2016 spring season after having shoulder surgery in December, defeated Natalie Dillon, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 at No. 6. Hristov also posted a win in doubles and she and then-junior Cristina Stancu upset eighth-ranked Kristie Ahn and Nicole Gibbs, 8-3, at No. 1. Ines Deheza and her twin sister Paula fell in doubles, 8-5, at No. 3 to Dillon and current Cardinal Krista Hardebeck, and Ines fell to Stacey Tan, 7-5, 6-3, at No. 4 singles.

Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.

Texas A&M Pronunciation Guide:
Rutuja Bhosale                       roo-too-jah bo-slay
Ines Deheza                            ee-NAY de-HAY-za
Saska Gavrilovska                   saush-ka gav-ril-ahv-ska
Stefania Hristov                     steff-on-ya RIS-tov
Anna Mamalat                       anna MAM-ah-LOT
Eva Paalma                             A-va paul-ma