HUTTON JONES INTERVIEW WITH GRANT BOONE
ABILENE – In what could be a preview of the 2013 NCAA D-II National Championship match, the third-ranked Wildcats of Abilene Christian will play host to the fourth-ranked Barry University Buccaneers 12 p.m. Wednesday at the Eager Tennis Pavilion.
Both of these teams reached last spring's national semifinals and are currently ranked No. 1 in their respective regions. Barry, which won the 2011 national championship, is off to a perfect 10-0 start, while the Wildcats are 8-2, after having lost to D-I teams from Northwestern State and Kentucky.
Free refreshments courtesy of the ACU coaching staff will be served that afternoon as weather conditions are expected to be near perfect for this time of year. The Weather.com forecast is calling for mostly sunny skies and a high of 64 degrees with winds coming out of southeast at 11 mph.
All of Barry's wins have primarily come vs. D-II opponents, but over half of them have been nationally ranked, including No. 10 West Florida, No. 12 St. Leo and No. 17 Nova Southeastern. The Buccaneers also blanked Embry-Riddle, which is the No. 2 school in all of D-III, 9-0.
Barry is led at the top by freshman Elisabeth Abanda and sophomore Linda Fritschken, who started the year preseason ranked No. 19 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Fritschken also is a combined 10-0 in doubles with partners Kimmy Twelker and Isabela Miro de Campos.
Abanda is 3-3 at No. 1, but several of her teammates, including Twelker, are undefeated in singles. Twelker is 6-0, while Karina Gola is 8-0 and Emma Onila a team-best 9-0. Seven of Onila's wins have come at No. 3.
In doubles play, Barry has lost just twice through 30 matches for a .933 winning percentage.
The Wildcats have been equally as good as Barry in doubles, as they've been led most of this season by their two nationally ranked duos of
Julia Mongin and Brittany Reed, and
Micah Hermsdorf and Hannah Kelly. Nationally ranked fifth after qualifying for the National Small College Championships, Mongin and Reed have won their last five matches, while last year's all-America duo of Hermsdorf and Kelley are ranked 14th with a 4-1 record.
ACU's No. 3 team, which is comprised of Mongin's and Hermsdorf's siblings, Laura and Kaysie, are off to a 6-0 start.
Laura Mongin also leads the Wildcats in singles victories this spring with seven as she's gone 5-1 at No. 4 and 1-0 at each No. 1 and 2.
Closer to the top,
Julia Mongin – the nation's fifth-ranked player – is 3-3 at No. 1, while Hermsdorf, ranked 32nd, is 3-2 at No. 2. Reed, who is the defending Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year, is 3-2 at No. 3, but has also won twice at No. 2 and again in her only appearance at No. 1.
ACU's No. 5 and 6 players are a combined 15-4. Newcomer
Nada Marjanovic and junior
Emily Conrad have split time at No. 5, while Kelley, a senior, is 4-1 at the No. 6 spot.
The Wildcats' most recent match was a 5-2 loss at Kentucky, against whom they won at all three doubles positions before losing all but one singles match. This defeat snapped a seven-match winning streak that included five shutout victories.
Admission to all ACU tennis matches is free.
