Printer-Friendly Format   E-mail this article     Sophomore Jessica Wente clinched the Seminoles' first round victory over Samford.
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The Seminoles will face No. 19 Texas or No. 43 South Florida on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

May 9, 2008

Tallahassee, Fla. - In front of a rowdy crowd at Scott Speicher Tennis Center, the No. 15 Florida State (19-7, 8-5) women's tennis squad took care of the Samford Bulldogs (20-5, 12-0) 4-0 to move on to the second round of the NCAA Tennis Championships for the second year in a row. The Seminoles' match-up against No. 19 Texas or No. 43 USF will mark just the fourth time in school history the team has made it to the second round.

"The team did a great job of doing what they needed to do today," said head coach Jennifer Hyde. "It was a bit of a slow start to singles, but they got over that and got in the mode. It was good to get through those first round jitters."

Sophomore Jessica Wente gave the Seminoles' their first win of the tournament with a 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Samford's Katie Weaver. Wente's win came just a few minutes after teammate Katie Rybakova secured her 18^th win of the season over Taylor Morgan 6-3, 6-2 on the spotlight court.

"Today was great for Jess," said Hyde. "She had 19 wins for the season and her goal was to get to 20, so it was great for her to get that today."

Senior Tapiwa Marobela got the ball rolling for Florida State in singles early on with a powerful 6-1, 6-0 defeat of Samford's Rebecca Kirven.

Florida State already had a point on its side going into singles after dominating the doubles contest earlier in the day. It took a matter of seconds for Florida State to clinch the doubles point as the matches on the first and second courts finished within ten heartbeats of each other.

Rybakova and junior Ania Rynarzewska posted an 8-1 dismantling of Weaver and Anna Jackson on court one. Moments later, senior Carolin Walter and freshman Federica Suess took care of Morgan and Lindsey Mallory 8-4 on court two.

Macfarlane and Wente were up 4-3 on court three at the time the other two matches ended, giving FSU the advantage heading into singles.

The Seminoles will be back in action at home again tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. against the winner of this afternoon's match up between No. 19 Texas and No. 43 South Florida. Tomorrow's winner will advance to the round of 16 in Tulsa, Okla. starting next Friday, May 16.

"We're going to be ready to go," said Hyde. "This team has been on a mission all year long, we still have a lot left to prove. We're going to take full advantage of being on our home court. We had a great crowd today and we're hoping we'll be able to get an even bigger crowd tomorrow. But we're just going to take it one moment at a time out there and get to where we want to go."

In 11 appearances at the NCAA Tournament, Florida State has never made it past the second round.

--seminoles.com--

Final Score:

#15 Florida State vs. Samford

Box Score

Singles

No. 1: #27 Katie Rybakova (FSU) def. Taylor Morgan (SAM) 6-3, 6-2

No. 2: #75 Lauren Macfarlane (FSU) vs. Andrei Meiring (SAM) 6-2, 4-1 DNF

No. 3: #89 Carolin Walter (FSU) vs. Anna Jackson (SAM) 6-4, 3-1 DNF

No. 4: Jessica Wente (FSU) def. Katie Weaver (SAM) 6-1, 6-2

No. 5: Tapiwa Marobela (FSU) def. Rebecca Kirven (SAM) 6-1, 6-0

No. 6: Federica Suess (FSU) vs. Lindsey Mallory (SAM) 6-7, 0-1 DNF

Order of finish: 5, 1, 4*

Doubles

No. 1: Rybakova/Ania Rynarzewska (FSU) def. Jackson/Weaver (SAM) 8-1

No. 2: Walter/Suess (FSU) def. Morgan/Mallory (SAM) 8-4

No. 3: Wente/Macfarlane (FSU) vs. Meiring/Kirven (SAM) DNF

Order of finish: 1, 2*

Oof - 5,