Spartans Head To Wake Forest For ITA Regionals
10/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Oct. 20, 2008
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Four USC Upstate women's tennis players will wrap up the fall portion of their slate when they head to the ITA Southeast Regionals at Wake Forest's Indoor Tennis Center this week. Play will begin on Wednesday with pre-qualifying. Sophomore Emilia Milovanovic will compete, needing to win two matches to advance to Thursday's qualifier. She starts her tournament by facing East Carolina's Brooke Walter. On Thursday, senior Daniela Lovera will start her run in the qualifying draw, needing two wins to advance to the main draw. She will face a pre-qualifier in her first round match. On Friday, the school's all-time singles wins leader, senior Anna Novo, will start play in the main draw. Novo, who entered the fall ranked 124th in the nation, will open the tournament against Tennessee's Rosalia Alda. Two doubles teams are also in the tournament's main draw with Novo and Milovanovic will face Elon's Anna Milian and Paige Kenstue in the first round. Lovera and freshman Cinthya Lazaro will face Charlotte's Ana Spivakovsko and Yudeshree Pillay.
2007 ITA Southeast Regionals Recap: Junior Anna Novo's career-long string of 11 straight singles victories was snapped on at the 2007 ITA Southeast Regionals, as Duke's third-seeded Ellah Nze took their second-round match in the Open Singles bracket, 6-2, 6-0, at the University of North Carolina's Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center. Novo posted a straight-set, 6-3, 6-3 win over North Carolina's Meg Fanjoy in the first round. The Spartans didn't pick up another win at the tournament, as both freshman Emilia Milovanovic and senior Susana Hernandez fell in the qualifying rounds and Novo and Milovanovic took a 9-8 (5) loss in the doubles draw.
Super-Novo
Senior Anna Novo won her final two singles matches to finish the Elon Invitational in third place with 16 points. In the process, the Venezuelan passed Diana Martinez (2004-08) for first in Upstate's career record book with her 74th singles win, a 6-2, 6-0 win over Campbell's Blanca Saenz. The 124th-ranked Novo, who has a 74-21 overall mark, has a 10-3 record this fall. She finished the Elon Invitational, 2-1, downing Longwood's Laura Simon, 6-3, 6-2 and Saenz on Saturday.
Novo and sophomore partner Emilia Milovanovic won two doubles matches at Elon, giving Novo 61 career doubles wins, which is just three shy of the school record of 64, also held by Martinez. Novo's 135 career combined wins is two shy of Martinez's mark of 137.
Spartans Perform Well At Elon Invitational
The USC Upstate women's tennis team completed a successful Elon Invitational, winning 11 of 16 singles matches and three of seven doubles matches. The Spartans beat Elon in four of six singles matches, Longwood in four of five singles matches and Campbell in three of five matches. In doubles play, Elon took two of three from Upstate, while Elon and Campbell both split a pair of matches with the Spartans. Senior Daniela Lovera and freshman Cinthya Lazaro both finished singles play 3-0 for Upstate.
Moving On Up
With her doubles win at the Elon Invitational, senior Daniela Lovera passed Maria Herrera (2005-08) for fourth in the school's career doubles record book. Lovera has posted a 52-21 record in doubles play to go with a 42-24 mark in singles action. This weekend, Lovera will look to move into fourth all-time in combined wins, as she stands just two behind Herrera and Nina Lesnanska's mark of 96.
