Bob Larson's Tennis News | WTN: 2009 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship Semifinals Match Results: #8 California 4, #5 Notre Dame 2

NCAA Division I Tennis Championships
Women's Semifinals
May 18, 2009
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station Texas

#8 California 4, #5 Notre Dame 2
RECORDS: California 22-4, Notre Dame 28-5

SINGLES
1. (#11) Jana Juricova, CAL def. (#29) Kelcy Tefft, ND, 6-1, 6-1
2. (#38) Kristy Frilling, ND def. (#26) Marina Cossou, CAL, 6-1, 6-1
3. (#41) Mari Andersson, CAL def. Cosmina Ciobanu, ND, 7-5, 6-3
4. (#54) Claire Ilcinkas, CAL def. Shannon Mathews, ND, 6-3, 7-6 (3)
5. (#32) Bojana Bobusic, CAL def. Kali Krisik, ND, 6-4, 6-1
6. Kristen Rafael, ND vs. Stephany Chang, CAL, 5-7, 6-3, DNF

DOUBLES
1. (#2) Frilling/Tefft, ND vs. (#7) Andersson/Juricova, CAL, 8-7, DNF
2. (#64) Ciobanu/Krisik, ND def. (#35) Cossou/Ilcinkas, CAL, 8-2
3. Mathews/Colleen Rielley, ND def. Bobusic/Chang, CAL, 8-5

ORDER OF FINISH: Doubles: 2, 3; Singles: 2, 1, 5, 4, 3

NOTES: California advances to the national championship match for the second consecutive year...The Golden Bears will take on Duke in the National Championship match, which will be televised live by ESPNU at 6 p.m. (CT) on Tuesday...Cal eliminated Duke in the round of 16 at the
2008 NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Okla...Last year, Cal fell to UCLA, 4-0, in the Golden Bears' first appearance in the national championship match.

QUOTES:
California Head Coach Amanda Augustus: "I think that in the doubles, it was a bit disappointing because we got off to a good start on court three and court one. To Notre Dame's credit, they really fought hard in the doubles. They always have good doubles, and I tried to coach the kids to expect that and to make adjustments. Unfortunately we didn't make as many adjustments on our end. We let them dictate play a little bit. After the doubles, I thought that we needed to play more aggressive and trust our game a little more. A lot of the girls on the Notre Dame team have a little bit of a different style than we normally see.
They're smart. They're creative and they use a lot of slice that we don't see very often out west. I think the girls in the singles did a good job of adjusting, but it was a dogfight for sure. We were out matched on court two today. Kristy (Frilling of Notre Dame) played really well. I would say that Jana (Juricova) played great for us on court one. We felt that was going to be a good match up for us. Mari Andersson, played a great match. She had so many opportunities to get down in that first set, and she just hung in there and fought her way through. Between her and Bojana (Bobusic) on court five, they were really using each other today. At that point, it was just a crucial point in the match when they both were at 4-all because I knew that we needed all those first sets to not give Notre Dame the momentum. I think that her comeback in her first set on court six, was very key for us. It lifted our level again, and Notre Dame kept fighting. It was just a great match all around."

California sophomore Mari Andersson: "I guess because I'm new (to college tennis), I don't really understand the impact of being the deciding match. Every match is different; you just have to win your match. It doesn't really matter who wins, as long as we win four. Of course it's exciting, but we came here to win, so it's like we are not done. This match was just one match on our way to our goal."

Notre Dame Head Coach Jay Louderback: "I thought we competed really hard. Our doubles played well. We were down at three and came back and won. We were actually done at one and three, and fought back in both of them. Our two doubles played really well. We knew for us to win, we had to win the doubles point to get a chance because their singles are so good. We did it and gave our self a shot, and I thought that we competed well. Kristy Frilling, I didn't see much of her's but she must have competed really well because their top two players are tough. They are good all the way down the line, but they are really good at one and two.
For her to get a win was good. It was good to see (Kristen) Rafael lose her first set but come back and get her second set. Then I thought all of our other kids competed well. They were tight matches, and I was really proud of how we competed."

(On California's singles line up): "We knew we had to get the doubles, and hoped we could fine three singles. Maybe one of them would trip and fall, that could have been our only chance. We were hoping to get it into a tight situation because when you get into it this far, a lot of times it's more about pressure than it is tennis. Sometimes it doesn't even come down to the tennis, it's the pressure. I felt really good about how our kids played yesterday and today. Our kids didn't play tired. I felt that our kids played loose, played hard, and that's all we can ask for. We didn't play tight, and we still lost. That was our hope to get it into some tight matches, but their singles are good at the top and deep. That's a real good singles line up."