Miami, FIU women’s tennis teams qualify for NCAA Tournament’s Coral Gables regional
The Miami Hurricanes and FIU Panthers women’s tennis teams will compete in the same NCAA regional this weekend.
Miami (15-6) is seeded 14th nationally, and the Hurricanes have qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the 27th consecutive season. The Hurricanes, who are hosting the four-team Coral Gables regional, will face Boston University (19-4) on Friday at 1 p.m.
Boston, which has won 10 straight matches, is a heavy underdog as Miami is 27-1 at home in NCAA Tournament play.
At 10 a.m. on Friday, 35th-ranked FIU (18-4) will face No. 19 Auburn (18-8).
The winners will play on Saturday at 1 p.m. with a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 on the line.
FIU qualified for the NCAA Tournament by winning Conference USA. It is just the second C-USA title in FIU history.
The Panthers, coached by Serbia native Katarina Petrovic, went 9-0 at home this season. The Panthers went 1-3 against teams ranked in the top-25 at the time, beating 18th-ranked UCLA and losing to No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 10 Miami and No. 21 UCF.
FIU’s seven-player roster includes two athletes from Morocco and one each from Russia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Nigeria and Uzbekistan.
TOP RIVALRY
This year’s NCAA Division II national championship in women’s tennis could come down to a battle between two local schools: the No. 1 Barry University Bucs (23-0) and the second-ranked Nova Southeastern University Sharks (22-3).
Barry is dominant, having won five straight national titles.
The Sharks, meanwhile, are 46-7 over the past two years, but five of those losses have come against Barry, including two this season. The only other NSU loss this year came in February, 4-3, against Keiser, which is No. 1 in the nation in the NAIA.
NSU made it to the national semifinals last year before losing to Barry. NSU has lost to Barry by the scores of 4-3, 4-2 and 4-0 last year and 4-3 and 5-2 this season.
If the seeds hold, Barry and NSU would meet in the NCAA Division II finals March 11-15 in Orlando.
Doug Neagle, who is in his seventh season as NSU’s coach, has helped build the Sharks program. Prior to last season, no NSU women’s tennis team had ever made it past regionals.
A Maryland native, Neagle left Towson to help change the culture of NSU tennis.
“The year before I got here, (NSU) was ranked seventh in the country,” Neagle said. “They had talent, but they lacked team chemistry.
“Since I arrived, I started to recruit the right kids – talented players who love the game.”
Those talented NSU players hail from Poland, France, India, Canada, Honduras and Russia.
“It’s amazing to see these young women from different countries, cultures and religions,” Neagle said. “Yet they are all so close.
“Why can’t the world be more like these players?”
One of NSU’s top players is Julie Razafindranaly, who transferred in from Barry, where she won three national titles. She also won 45 of her 46 matches while at Barry.
Perhaps Razafindranaly can help NSU take the next step as a program.
“Our goal is to win the whole thing,” Neagle said. “But it won’t be easy. Barry has set itself above everybody. To beat them, we have to train like we are trying to beat professionals.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ Karissa Kilby, a sophomore from Honolulu, is the first FIU golfer to be selected to compete in an NCAA regional since Camila Serrano in 2017. She will compete in the Palm Beach Gardens regional May 8-10. Kilby was Conference USA’s Freshman of the Year last season. This year, she is one of just three golfers in the league to qualify for regionals.
▪ NSU golfer Olivia Gronborg, a freshman from Denmark, recently won the Sunshine State Conference title by two strokes. Next, she will lead NSU in the NCAA Division II South Region Tournament May 7-10 at Gainesville, Georgia.
▪ NSU’s men’s golf team will host an NCAA South Regional Tournament May 11-13. Among the teams in the field are second-ranked Barry, No. 3 West Florida, No. 4 Lee and No. 6 NSU.
▪ The visiting Barry’s men’s tennis team, ranked third in the nation, beat top-ranked St. Leo, 4-2, on Friday to win the NCAA South Region title. Next up for Barry is the national tournament. The Bucs (21-5) will be trying for their fourth straight national title.
