The NCAA News - News and Features

May 11, 1998

Division I Women's Tennis

Stanford primed to capture its 10th title with its strong all-around game

Event: 1998 Division I Women's Tennis Championships.

Overview: Stanford is looking to repeat as champion and win its 10th national crown. Senior Julie Scott cleaned up at the Rolex National Indoor Individual Championships as champion in both singles and doubles. The doubles title was the second in a row for Scott with partner Ania Bleszynski. Sophomore Teryn Ashley leads the team in wins with a 39-8 record. Sophomore Anne Kremer, who plays at the No. 1 spot for Stanford, is ranked eighth in the nation in singles and 13th in doubles .... Florida, last year's runner-up, is looking to regain the title it lost to Stanford. Senior Dawn Buth and junior Stephanie Nickitas won the doubles championship in 1997 and became the first women's duo to win back-to-back doubles titles. Sophomore M. C. White is looking to win in singles after falling to Stanford's Lilia Osterloh in last year's final .... Leading Georgia into battle is sophomore Marissa Catlin, who is ranked first in the country in singles with a 37-4 record. She and doubles partner Vanessa Castellano are ranked second in the country with a 24-4 record .... Texas is placing its hopes on senior Cristina Morris, who is ranked 27th in singles and fourth in doubles. Morris won both the singles and doubles titles at the ITA Championship last summer. She was a doubles finalist in her sophomore year at the NCAA championships and looks to repeat with partner Sandy Sureephong .... A novice doubles team leads Vanderbilt's championship hopes. Sophomore Kristy Blumberg and freshman Julie Ditty are 19-12 for the year. In singles, Ditty has played in the No. 1 spot in recent matches and has a 29-9 overall record. Blumberg has notched a 23-19 record in singles. Also contributing for the Commodores is junior Callie Creighton, who has a 19-13 singles record, and rookie Kristen Radford, who boasts a 28-10 singles mark .... Mississippi is led by Agnes Muzamel, who competes at No. 1 singles and doubles. Muzamel is ranked 13th in singles and eighth in doubles. She teams with Courtenay Chapman in doubles .... Other contenders include Duke, California, Brigham Young, William and Mary and Arizona State.

Field: Eight teams will play at each of six regional tournaments. The six regional winners will advance to the national championship, joining 10 teams selected in advance that will not compete in regionals. The individual championships brackets will include 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams. A maximum of 68 players in singles and doubles will be selected from institutions other than those competing in the team championship. A minimum of four singles players and two doubles teams will be selected from each region. No more than six singles players and three doubles teams will be selected from one institution.

Dates and sites: Regional tournaments will be May 15-17. The national championships will be May 21-24, and the singles and doubles championships will be May 25-29 in South Bend, Indiana.

Television coverage: The championships team final will be broadcast tape-delayed by ESPN at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, May 27.

Information/results: Individual and team championships results are available on the NCAA Fax-on-Demand System. The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1547 for dates and sites, 1548 for bracket/schedule, 5241 for qualifiers, 5242 through 5245 for team results, and 5246 through 5250 for individual results. Regional and championships results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championships results will be published in the May 25 (regional tournaments) and June 8 (finals) issues of The NCAA News.