Moulton-Levy, Zoricic Advance to All-American Semifinals

The No. 22 nationally ranked duo defeated the No. 2-ranked team from Cal to advance.

10/06/06 9:30PM

Pacific Palisades, Calif. - The William and Mary doubles tandem of senior Megan Moulton-Levy and sophomore Katarina Zoricic became the first Tribe team in 15 years to advance to the semifinals of the Rivera/ITA All-American Tennis Championships presented by Fila. The duo continued its perfect season with a victory over the No. 2-ranked nationally from California and will compete in the semifinals on Saturday, Oct. 7.

Moulton-Levy and Zoricic continued their early season onslaught with an 8-4 victory over No. 2 Suzie Babos and Zsuzsanna Fodor of California in the quarterfinals. The win pushed the Tribe’s record to 9-0 on the year and marked the third top-10 foe the No. 22-ranked W&M tandem has defeated in the last three matches.

The road will not get any easier for the Tribe as they are set to face the No. 3-ranked pair of Catrina and Christian Thompson of Notre Dame. The Irish duo are also the defending All-American Champions. The semifinals are slated for Oct. 7 with the finals to follow on Oct. 8. It marked the first time since 1991 that a Tribe pair has advanced to the semifinals of the All-American Championships. During that sea-son, Michele Mair and Karen van der Merwe advanced to the championship match, falling, 7-5, 6-3, to Susan Gilchrist and Vickie Paynter of Texas.

Moulton-Levy saw her tournament run in the singles draw come to a close, but not before an impressive victory in the second round of competition. She outlasted No. 3-ranked Theresa Logar of Stanford to advance to the quarterfinals. After dropping the first set, 6-2, the Tribe senior rallied to take the second, 6-4, and force a decisive third set. Moulton-Levy took the match in a third-set tiebreark, 7-6 (3), winning a battle between two of the top 10 players in the country.

The Monroe, Mich., native could not carry the momentum over to her quarterfinal match with No. 19 Melanie Gloria of Fresno State. Moulton-Levy dropped the first set, 6-3, and despite forcing a second-set tiebreaker, ran out of gas as the Bulldog notched a 7-6 (5) win to move into the semifinals. The Tribe’s top singles player fell to 8-2 on the year.

W&M Results from the Rivera/ITA All-American Championships
Singles Main Draw – Second Round
#10 Megan Moulton-Levy (W&M) def. #3 Theresa Logar (Stanford) – 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3)

Singles Main Draw – Quarterfinals
#19 Melanie Gloria (Fresno State) def. #10 Megan Moulton-Levy (W&M) – 6-3, 7-6 (5)

Doubles Main Draw – Quarterfinals
#22 Megan Moulton-Levy/Katarina Zoricic (W&M) def. #2 Suzie Babos/Zsuzsanna Fodor (California) – 8-4