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USC Finishes Second in Regular Season Conference Play

Women's tennis travels to Pac-10 Championships.

April 22, 1999

THIS WEEK - With a 5-4 victory over No. 5 California on Saturday (April 17) at Marks Tennis Stadium, the No. 11 Women of Troy (18-8 overall, 7-1 in the Pacific-10 Conference) finished the season second in the Pac-10, which is their best finish since 1988, when they also took second.

The Pac-10 champion, No. 2 Stanford, defeated USC on Friday (April 16), 6-1, handing the Women of Troy their only loss at home and in the Pac-10 this year. Junior Jacqui Boyd earned the Women of Troy's lone point with a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Stanford's Gabriela Lastra.

USC will travel to Ojai, Calif., to participate in the Pacific-10 Conference Individual Championships from Thursday-Sunday (April 22-25).

RANKINGS - The Women of Troy are currently No. 11 in the ITA rankings.

In the individual rankings, USC has three players in the top 100. Senior Ditta Huber has moved up seven spots to No. 13. Junior Kara Warkentin is ranked 67th and junior Jacqui Boyd is right behind her at No. 68 in the nation.

USC's doubles team of Huber and Warkentin is currently No. 14 and the duo of senior Karolina Bakalarova and junior Veronika Safarova return to the top 50 with a No. 35 ranking in the ITA doubles poll.

HOME SWEET HOME - USC's unbeaten streak at home was snapped on Friday with Stanford's 6-1 victory over the Women of Troy. They finished the season with an impressive 12-1 record at home this year in dual matches.

WOMEN'S PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS PREVIEW

MAIN DRAW SINGLES PARTICIPANTS

Ditta Huber - 5-9, Sr., San Diego, Calif.
Senior Ditta Huber, USC's No. 1 singles player, has amassed a 26-14 overall record this season, going 4-3 in the Pac-10, 15-9 in dual match play and 19-9 against regional opponents. She is currently ranked 13th in the nation in the ITA individual rankings, having moved up seven spots from No. 20 in the previous poll.

Earlier this season Huber posted eight victories over seven different opponents ranked in the top 50, including a key upset of the former No. 2 nationally ranked player, Stanford's Marissa Irvin on April 3. The experienced Huber has faced tough competition all season long, having played against five of the current top 10 players in the nation and also facing 19 opponents who are in the top 50.

1999 will be Huber's second trip to the Pac-10 individual championships. She went as a freshman in 1996, but lost to Washington's Kori Sosnowy, 7-6, 6-3, in the first round. Huber will face Claire Curran (tied for No.100 in the nation) of California on Thursday, April 22 at 12:30 p.m.

Kara Warkentin - 5-6, Jr., Santa Barbara, Calif.
Junior Kara Warkentin, who has played at the No. 2 position in every dual match but two, is the Women of Troy's leader in match victories with 31 this season. She posted a 31-15 overall record in regular season matches, including a 6-2 Pac-10 mark. Warkentin is 16-10 in dual matches in 1999 and 21-10 in regional play. Having been nationally ranked in the top 100 all season-long (including as high as 48th), she is currently No. 67 in the most recent ITA poll.

Warkentin has gone 10-4 since March 3, and two of those losses were to Stanford's Teryn Ashley, who is ranked fifth in the nation. Her only other conference loss came from UCLA's Annica Cooper (No. 15 in the nation) on March 3, 7-5, 6-3.

Last year in the Pac-10 Championships, Warkentin lost to Washington's Zuzana Stunova in the first round, 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, who she beat earlier this month in Seattle, 6-4, 6-3. Once again, Warkentin will face Stunova in the first round on Thursday, April 22, at 8 a.m.

Jacqui Boyd - 5-6, Jr., Cape Town, South Africa
A starter at the No. 3 spot in the lineup for most of the season, junior Jacqui Boyd boasts both the highest winning percentage in dual matches on the team (.808) and an undefeated record in Pac-10 matches this season (8-0). She is 28-9 overall this season, and 21-5 in dual matches and regional play. Currently, Boyd is No. 68 in the nation right behind teammate Kara Warkentin, which is her highest ranking of the year.

At the No. 3 position in the lineup, Boyd had an impressive 18-4 record. She is USC's hottest player as of late, posting a 12-2 record in individual matches since March 3. Currently, Boyd is on a five-match winning streak that includes two key victories over Stanford's Gabriela Lastra (No. 47) and California's Anita Kurimay (No. 23) that helped clinch second place in the Pac-10 for the Women of Troy.

Last year, Jacqui was the only member of the Women of Troy to make it to the second round of the Pac-10 Championships. She defeated Washington State's Patrycja Gajdzik, 6-4, 6-4, but then lost to Stanford's Julie Scott, 6-0, 6-2. Boyd will play Washington State's Erica Perkins (tied for No. 38 in the nation) on Thursday, April 22, at 11 a.m.

Karolina Bakalarova - 5-6, Sr., Trebic, Czech Republic
Senior Karolina Bakalarova has competed in the No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 positions for USC this season. Bakalarova is 20-6 overall, 19-5 in dual matches and 6-2 in the Pac-10. At No. 4 Bakalarova is 4-4, she is 5-0 at No. 5 and she holds a 9-1 record when playing the No. 6 spot. She is not currently ranked in the ITA Poll.

Bakalarova holds the best overall winning percentage on the team in 1999 (.769) and is second on the team in dual matches (.792) and Pac-10 matches (.750). Twice this season she has had eight-match winning streaks, the first from Jan. 21-Feb. 19, and the other from March 3 to March 30.

This will be Bakalarova's fourth trip to the Pac-10 Championships. She advanced to the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 invitational in 1998 before being defeated by Helen Frankland of Washington, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. In 1997 Bakalarova fell to Katia Roubanova of UCLA, 6-2, 6-3, in the first round of the main tournament. In 1996 she fell in the invitational singles final to Stanford's Julie Scott, 6-7, 6-1, 6-2. Bakalarova will face Kristina Kraszewski (No. 16 in the nation) of Washington in the first round of the main draw on Thursday, April 22, at 9:30 a.m.

INVITATIONAL SINGLES DRAW PARTICIPANTS

Veronika Safarova - 5-7, Jr., Brno, Czech Republic
Junior Veronika Safarova will be competing in the Pac-10 invitational singles championships this weekend in Ojai. She will play California's Jenny Lee on Thursday, April 22, at 9:30 a.m.

Safarova accumulated a 15-11 overall record this season competing mostly in the No. 4 position in the lineup. She went 14-9 in dual matches and 4-4 in the Pac-10. Last year she competed at the Pac-10 championships, but lost in the first round to Zsofia Csapo of Pepperdine, 6-2, 6-1.

MAIN DRAW DOUBLES PARTICIPANTS

Huber-Warkentin - Ranked No. 13 in the nation, the team of Ditta Huber and Kara Warkentin has had much success this season. The pair is coming off a major upset of California's No. 4 duo of Amanda Augustus and Amy Jensen on April 17 that clinched a second place finish in the Pac-10 for the Women of Troy and pushed California into third. Huber-Warkentin are 16-10 overall this season and 12-8 in dual matches in 1999. They earned a 4-1 mark in the Pac-10 and have gone 13-7 in regional play.

All of their 20 matches were played in the No. 1 spot in the doubles lineup. They started off the year going 11-2 in doubles play, including a 7-0 start in dual matches at the beginning of the spring season. The nation's No. 2 ranked duo of Teryn Ashley and Marissa Irvin of Stanford handed Huber-Warkentin their only conference defeat of the year on April 16, 8-4.

Both Huber and Warkentin traveled to the Pac-10 doubles championships last year, but with different partners. Huber was paired with Jacqui Boyd and lost in the first round to Kraszewski-Stunova of Washington, 6-3, 6-3. Warkentin teamed with Veronika Safarova and managed to make it to the second round by defeating Sosnowy-Wu, also of Washington, 6-2, 6-2. They then lost to Arizona State's Lansdorp-Propstra, 6-2, 6-3. Huber-Warkentin will play Arizona's Monique Allegre and Linday Blau (No. 29 in the nation) in the first round. USC's duo has deafeated Allegre-Blau twice this season already, once on January 30, 8-4, and again on March 12, of 8-2.

Bakalarova-Safarova - USC's No. 2 doubles team of Karolina Bakalarova and Veronika Safarova, both of the Czech Republic, will also be making the trip to Ojai. Bakalarova-Safarova are currently ranked 35th in the ITA doubles poll. They have posted a 14-4 overall record this season and 13-3 mark in dual matches. The duo is 10-3 in regional play and 4-1 in Pac-10 doubles matches.

Bakalarova-Safarova's only conference loss came against Stanford's team of Gabriela Lastra and Lauren Kalvaria on April 16, which was ranked 26th at the time. Two of its other three losses came against higher ranked opponents and the pair was forced to retire on March 12 against Arizona when Safarova had to forfeit due to a leg injury. Bakalarova-Safarova has the best winning percentage of USC's top four doubles teams (.778).

In 1998, Bakalarova paired with four different partners for a combined record of 13-8 overall in doubles play. Safarova's partner was Kara Warkentin and they went 7-5 overall and earned a berth in the Pac-10 championships. This year, the pair will square off against Washington State's team of Sarah Burrows and Erica Perkins in the first round.