Women's Tennis Duo Wins National Championship
Nov 9, 2002 | Women's Tennis
Nov. 9, 2002
FARMER's BRANCH, Texas - - The Tulane women's tennis duo of Julie Smekodub and Jenny Kuhn won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Indoor Championship, held at the Brookhaven Country Club on Saturday.
It marks the first national championship in women's tennis at Tulane and is the school's first individual title in any sport since men's tennis standout Jose Aguero won the NCAA Tournament in 1955.
"I am absolutely ecstatic right now," Tulane head coach David Schumacher said. "This is obviously the best result in our program's history. The girls put together an awesome performance, both today and throughout the tournament."
Smekodub and Kuhn, both freshmen at Tulane, cruised to an 8-5 win over Washington's Claire Carter and Darija Klaic in the championship match. The Green Wave duo had topped the Missouri team of Urska Juric and Katka Sevcikova, 8-5, in the semifinals late Friday night. Carter and Klaic had reached the finals by virtue of their 8-4 win over Cal's team of Christina Fusano and Raquel Kops-Jones in the other semifinal match.
Kuhn, a freshman from Leipzig, Germany, and Smekodub, a freshman from Brooklyn, N.Y., earned a spot in the 16-team doubles draw by winning the ITA Southwest Regional. Smekodub also won the singles portion of the Southwest Regional and was one of 32 players to participate in the singles draw of the ITA National Indoors. She reached the quarterfinals before bowing out to eventual finalist Jewel Peterson of Southern Cal. The singles draw championship match will be played on Sunday afternoon.
The ITA National Indoor Championships are the second of three national championships tournaments for Division I collegiate tennis during the 2002-03 season. The first event, the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships, took place in Pacific Palisades, Calif., last month. Smekodub participated in that tournament, splitting a pair of matches in the qualifying draw. The season-ending NCAA Championships in May are the third tournament.
