University of Richmond Athletics
Women's Tennis Seeded No. 1 For A-10 Championships
04/18/2002 | Women's Tennis
April 18, 2002
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The University of Richmond women's tennis team was a unanimous selection by the Atlantic 10's coaches as the No. 1 seed for the upcoming Verizon Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Championship. The event will be held at the Tennis Center at College Park in College Park, Md., from April 19-21.
Richmond enters the weekend with a 9-9 overall record, 2-0 in the Atlantic 10. Their spring schedule has included numerous nationally-ranked opponents, such as #8 North Carolina, #15 William & Mary, #21 VCU, #60 Virginia, and #62 Old Dominion. In conference action, the Spiders have defeated their opponents by a combined score of 13-1, besting George Washington, 6-1, and Duquesne, 7-0. The Colonials and Dukes are tentatively slotted for the No.s 2 and 4 seeds, respectively.
Of the 12 players in the conference who have 13 or more wins this season, four of them wear a Spider uniform. Sophomore Jeannette Cluskey (Edina, Minn.) is tied for second in the Atlantic 10 with 18 wins, despite playing a difficult spring schedule at the No. 1 singles position. Junior Vanessa Bagnato (Manhasset, N.Y.) has picked up 17 victories while freshman Courtney Klein (East Amherst, N.Y.) and junior Casey Cohen (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) have recorded 15 and 13 wins, respectively.
Bagnato and freshman Lindsay Cox (Finchampstead, Workingham Berks, UK) have been rolling for the Spiders. Bagnato has won nine of her past 11 at the No. 2 position, including a win over the #34 player in the country, while Cox has won eight of her past 11 at No. 3 singles. Klein has won four of the past five at the No. 5 spot and sophomore Patty Devlin (York, Pa.) has won two of her last three at the No. 6 slot.
The winner of the Atlantic 10 championship will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA championships. The Spiders last won a conference tournament championship in 1985 while a member of the CAA. Their last trip to the NCAA championships was in 1997 and 1998 when head coach Mark Wesselink coached the Spiders to back-to-back appearances.
Richmond will play its first match of the tournament this Friday at 1:00 p.m. Seedings for the championship will be finalized Thursday night, but the Spiders' tentative opponent for that match will be the winner of the No. 8 Fordham/No. 9 St. Bonaventure match that will be played Friday at 8:00 a.m.
The championship starts on Friday, April 19 at 8:00 a.m., while the final match of the day will begin at 3:30 p.m. The schedule remains the same on Saturday, April 20. The fifth- and seventh-place matches of the Verizon Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Championship will commence on Sunday, April 21 at 8:00 a.m. The championship match and third-place match will follow at 11:00 a.m.
The championship brackets can be seen at the Atlantic 10's website, or by [Clicking here.]