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| Jelena Pandzic, Fresno State |
ATHENS, Ga. - Fresno State's Jelena Pandzic defeated Stanford's Alice Barnes, 6-2, 6-2 in the round of 16 NCAA Singles Tournament match at the Dan Magill Tennis Center. The victory moves Pandzic into Thursday's quarterfinals, the farthest any Bulldog has ever advanced in the NCAA Women's Singles Tournament. She will now play 9-16 seed Aibika Kalsarieva of Kentucky, who advanced by upsetting seventh-seeded Amanda Johnson of Duke in three sets.
Barnes, Stanford's No. 2 singles player who was ranked in or near the top 10 for most of the season, was a major part of the Cardinal's team national championship, which was clinched on Sunday. After winning three of her singles matches in four days (one went unfinished), she breezed through both of her NCAA singles contests with ease on Monday and Tuesday.
She complained of being tired after her 6-1, 6-3 win over Karin Coetzee of Wake Forest on Tuesday, and after being dispatched in 1 hour 24 minutes on Wednesday, she felt no better.
Unlike her last two matches, when she fell behind early, Pandzic grabbed control of today's contest immediately, jumping ahead 3-0 in the first set. The Split, Croatia, native never let up, committing only three errors in the first set while making 76 percent of her first serves. Pandzic never faced a break point in cruising 6-2.
After trading off breaks to start the second set, Pandzic held to go ahead 2-1. That's when Barnes gift-wrapped a break of serve for Fresno State's freshman, serving up four double faults in allowing Pandzic to jump ahead 3-1.
Pandzic continued to hammer away at Barnes' tired psyche the rest of the way, dropping only one more game in winning in tidy fashion, always an important quality given that she still has a doubles tournament match to play in the heat of Wednesday afternoon.
Pandzic is looking to become the second freshman in a row to win the NCAA Singles title. Last year, Stanford's Amber Liu, the No. 4 seed this season, claimed the title. Liu is still alive in this year's tournament.