Tennis Heads To Bear Country On Wednesday

March 7, 2011

AMHERST, Mass. - After enjoying a 7-0 sweep on Saturday vs. Albany, the UMass tennis team (8-4) looks forward, riding their respectable two-game winning streak, to #53 Brown University (8-5) on Wednesday at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I. at 3 p.m. Currently, Brown owns a commanding lead vs. the UMass tennis team in the all-time series, as the Bears are 17-0 dating back to their first meeting in 1980. Also, the UMass tennis team watches senior Candynce Boney try and put her name in the UMass record books as one of the tennis team's elite players in both singles and doubles wins.

The Newcomers
The trio of Yuliana Motyl (Toronto, Ontario), Clara Matias (Barcelona, Spain) and Jessica Podlofsky (Port Washington, N.Y.) joined the Minutewomen this fall for the 2010-11 season. Motyl has been ranked as high as 511th on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) world junior rankings, Matias has been ranked as high as 48th in the Spanish National Ranking and Podlofsky is currently 154th on the tennis recruiting national rankings for the 2010 class.

During the fall season, Podlofsky started out strong, grabbing the Eastern Collegiate Invitational Championship in Flight D. On the season, she is 7-1 in doubles matches and 8-2 in singles matches, ranging anywhere from the #4 to #6 singles. As for Matias, she has grabbed a victory in both her #3 and #4 singles matches, and is 3-3 on the season. Motyl is playing tough competition at #1 and #2 singles and has improved on her record, as she is 4-7 and riding a two win match streak.

Boney Blasting Through UMass Records
Senior Candynce Boney has been playing well this season and finds herself climbing the ladder to be recognized as one of the top ten players in both singles and doubles in UMass. Currently, Boney stands sixth all-time in singles wins and tied for fifth all-time in doubles with nine matches remaining. If she were to win out the rest of the season, she could end up as high as tied for second all-time in singles and tied for second all-time in doubles wins at UMass.

Tennis Predicted 5th in A-10
The UMass Tennis team is predicted to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10 according to the conference's preseason poll released on Monday. The group finished fifth in the conference tournament last season, and is looking to build from their strong fall 2-0 start in dual matches.

Richmond has been picked to repeat as A-10 championships after taking home its sixth title in the past seven seasons a year ago. George Washington, who fell in the conference title game last year, has been tabbed second this year, followed by Temple.

Scouting the Bears of Brown University
Brown has played some tough competition in the season and has been successful so far. They are currently 8-5 on the season and have tough wins over #44 Boston College, #57 Harvard, #69 Dartmouth, and #70 Boston University. Currently the Bears are riding a five game winning streak and have won eight out of nine dual matches. Senior Bianca Aboubakare is lending a helping hand to the Bear's success, as she is 3-0 in her last three matches in doubles and 4-0 combined in No. 1 and No. 2 singles in her last four matches. Streaming Video
UMass is proud to announce that we will be providing the public with our first UMass Tennis TV broadcast on March 27 against Fairfield. You can watch this broadcast on Comcast's channel 293 and on Charter's channel 290.

Guide to Collegiate Tennis
Order of Events
 Three doubles matches are played, followed by six singles matches  Each team ranks its singles players from No. 1 to No.6 and its doubles teams from No. 1 to No. 3  Players will match up by rank: No. 1 v. No.1, No. 2 v. No. 2, etc.

Team Scoring
 Seven total points are available  The six singles matches are each composed of up to three six-game sets; the first player to win two sets earns a point for his team  The three doubles matches are each composed of one eight-game set; the team that wins at least two of the three doubles matches earns the one available doubles point  Under normal circumstances, all matches will be played, even if one team has already earned the four points needed to win.

General Tennis Scoring
 Games consist of four points: 15,30,40, and Game  Each game must be won by two points  If the game score is tied at 40-40, a player must win the next rally to earn "Advantage", then the next point to earn "Game"; otherwise, the score returns to 40-40  Singles sets must be won by two games; however, if the score reaches 6-6, one tiebreaker game is played

Next Up
The UMass tennis team will continue its spring season, as they visit Florida for UMass' spring break to face off against Florida Atlantic, Wyoming, Barry, and Palm Beach Atlantic from Mar. 14-16.

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics

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