Novo Heads To California For Riviera/ITA All-American Championships
9/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Sept. 25, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The 2008 Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year, senior Anna Novo (Caracas, Venezuela/El-Angel) has always been a trailblazer for the USC Upstate women's tennis team. Now, the Spartan star will head to Pacific Palisades, Calif., to compete in the prestigious Riviera/ITA All-American Championships in the pre-qualifying draw, becoming the first Spartan to ever compete at the event.
Novo, who is four singles wins shy of the school-record of 73 set by Diana Martinez (2005-08), will start her odyssey at the event with the pre-qualifying rounds held at Pepperdine University on Saturday and Sunday. Novo will have to advance to the quarterfinals of the 64-woman bracket to advance to the qualifying draw, where she will again have to advance to the quarterfinals of a 64-woman draw to reach the main, 32-woman draw. The qualifying draw will be held at the Riviera Tennis Club on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 30-Oct. 1 before the main draw starts on Thursday, Oct. 2 and runs until Sunday, Oct. 5.
Novo, who is ranked 124th in the nation, will start the tournament by facing Noelle Hickey of Georgia Tech, who is 107th. Hickey went 24-9 for the Yellow Jackets in 2007-08, playing mainly at the No. 5 and Mo. 6 singles positions for the NCAA quarterfinalists. The winner of the match faces the winner of the match between Southern California's Sarah Fansler, ranked 123rd, and Virginia's Emily Fraser.
Novo, a two-time Division II All-American, finished the 2007-08 season with a school-record 29 singles wins and 52 combined (singles and doubles) wins. She was 29-5 in singles play and 23-7 in doubles. Along the way, she was completely dominant in the Atlantic Sun Conference, finishing a perfect 11-0 at the No. 1 singles slot, being pushed to the third set just twice and defeating the conference's only ranked player in straight sets in ETSU's No. 79 Yevgeniya Stupak, 6-4, 6-3.
This season, Novo has started 4-1 in singles playing advancing to the finals of the USC Upstate Fall Tournament before falling to Stupak and winning the Gold flight at the ETSU Fall Challenge. She also won the `A' doubles flight at the ETSU Fall Challenge with sophomore partner Emilia Milovanovic (Paris, France/CNED).
The ITA All-American field is one of the toughest in the collegiate ranks, with the draw being created using the ITA preseason singles rankings as the main guide. The tournament, one of two ITA national tournaments during the fall, includes nearly 500 entries during the 10-day event.
The rest of the Spartans get back into action in two weeks at the Wofford Fall Challenge, starting on Friday, Oct. 3.
