ACU women win; men fall in first round

ACU women move on, will face No. 1 BYU-Hawaii

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. -- The ACU women's tennis team coasted past Northwest Missouri State, 5-1, Wednesday in the first round of the NCAA Division II national championship tournament, and now must face No. 1-ranked and two-time defending national championBYU-Hawaii in the quarterfinals.

The ACU men, meanwhile, fell to 14th-ranked Southwest Baptist, 5-3, in the first round, the third straight time the Wildcats have been knocked out of the national tournament in the first round.

On the women's side, ACU took two of three doubles matches from the Lady Bearcats, who did manage to win at No. 1 doubles.  The Wildcats, however, wasted little time, winning all three singles two sets to none. Rachel Taylor whipped Sara Lipira, 6-2, 6-0; Lana Pavlin blitzedJan Pendrak, 6-0, 6-0; and Holly Lindloff knocked off Danielle Cartier, 6-2, 6-2.

"We were pretty dominant today," ACU head coach Hutton Jones said.  "We just came out a little flat at No. 1 doubles (where Colleen Reynolds and Rachel Taylor lost 8-5 to Gena Lindsey and Rosa Tapia), but we were able to rally in singles play to make up for it."

Now the Wildcats get the opportunity to play a BYU-Hawaii team that blitzed Valdosta State (Ga.), 5-0, Wednesday to improve to 30-0 on the season.  ACU (29-6) is in the quarterfinals for the ninth straight year, but it hasn't advanced past the quarterfinals since 1996 when it lost to Armstrong Atlantic (Ga.) in the national championship match.

In its latest nine-year run in the national tournament, ACU has lost to the eventual national champion six times in the quarterfinal round, including in each of the last three years.  The last two losses in that streak were to BYU-Hawaii, which beat ACU 5-0 in 2002 and 5-1 in 2003.

BYU-Hawaii has three players on its roster who have combined to win more than $100,000 on professional tours, but because of a loophole in NCAA rules, they are eligible to play at the collegiate level.  Jones said Thursday's match doesn't compare in scope to the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team's match against the Soviet Union, but the comparison of amateurs against "professionals" isn't altogether inaccurate.

"We've talked about the movie 'Miracle,' and we're facing that kind of situation against BYU-Hawaii," Jones said.  "In no way, shape or form am I conceding the match to BYU-Hawaii, because even though we lost to them last year, we're getting closer and closer to them each year.  But what this boils down to -- and I've told the NCAA this -- is this ACU amateurs playing the professionals from BYU-Hawaii."

On the men's side, Southwest Baptist took two of three doubles matches with George Carstens and Kevin Beedy knocking off Peter Joos and Brian Harrelson, 8-2, at No. 3 doubles.  At No. 1 doubles, Southwest Baptist's team of Andras Bori and Mark Eori rallied past Jason Ray and Casper Steenkamp, 9-8.

The ACU duo fell behind 7-4 before rallying to win four straight points to take an 8-7 lead.  ACU had a match point, but Southwest Baptist's team won the point to send the match to a tiebreaker.  ACU had one match point in the tiebreaker, but Southwest Baptist again fended off the point, and later won the set and the match.

Carstens at No. 4 singles and Even Puglia at No. 6 singles picked up singles wins for the Wildcats, but Southwest Baptist was able to pick up wins at No. 1 (Dante Cipulli over Casper Steenkamp, 6-2, 6-3), No. 2 singles (Mark Eori over Jason Ray, 6-3, 6-3) and No. 3 singles (Andras Bori over Trent Broach, 6-3, 6-3).  Cipulli entered the tournament as the nation's second-ranked singles player, and Eori and Bori were also ranked in the top 30.

"Southwest Baptist is a little bit better than we are at the top of the singles bracket," Jones said.  "I felt like we would win No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles, and then we'd need to steal one of the other five matches to win the match.  Our chance opened up at No. 1 doubles, but we just came up a little bit short.  We had our chances and played a really good match at No. 1 doubles, but Southwest Baptist's team just came up with some great shots to fend us off.  This is tough because we all hate to lose, but we put ourselves in position to win, and I'm proud of our guys for that."

The Wildcats will return seven lettermen in 2004-05, including Steenkamp, Carstens, Puglia and Ray, and will add Arteen Tafazoli of Los Angeles, Calif., who was ranked No. 6 in the nation 18s singles.