2007-08 Women's Tennis Season Preview

01/03/08 4:30PM

Williamsburg - With all eight players returning from last season’s run to the NCAA Round of 16, the 2008 season appears to be a bright one for the Tribe. Last year, the College finished No. 15 nationally with a 22-3 overall mark, while winning its 19th CAA Championship. Fifth-year head coach Kevin Epley will have a luxury not afforded to many in the form of his entire lineup from a season ago returning in 2007-08.

W&M will be loaded as the top of the lineup, highlighted by a trio of players who were ranked among the top 90 in the country in the Fila/ITA National Preseason Singles Rankings. For the second straight season, senior Megan Moulton-Levy was ranked among the top-10 nationally at No. 7 followed by junior Katarina Zoricic and sophomore Ragini Acharya at No. 46 and No. 90, respectively. Moulton-Levy and Zoricic, who were ranked No. 2 at the end of the 2007 campaign in doubles, found themselves atop the preseason doubles rankings in the fall of 2007.

Moulton-Levy returns as not only the top player on the Tribe’s roster, but the top player in the Colonial Athletic Association. Last season, Moulton-Levy was named the CAA Player of the Year for the third straight campaign and earned All-America accolades in both singles and doubles. A four-time All-American, she has 101 career singles victories and 102 career doubles wins following competition in the fall.

Moulton-Levy has held down the No. 1 singles position in each of her three years. In those seasons, the Monroe, Mich., native is 45-11 overall at the top singles spot. She owns 54 wins over nationally ranked players.

The W&M junior trio of Zoricic, Klaudyna Kasztelaniec and Barbara Zidek continued to make an impact in 2007 and will look for more of the same with the turn of the calendar. Zoricic, who finished last season ranked No. 69 nationally in singles, was a force at the No. 2 singles slot for the Tribe in 2007. She amassed an impressive 14-2 mark at the No. 2 position and, while filling in for an injured Moulton-Levy, went 3-1 at the top singles position. For the second straight season, Zoricic was a first-team all-league selection and earned the first All-America distinction of her career in doubles.

Zoricic’s impact on the Tribe’s lineup was no more evident than in the College’s 4-3 upset of No. 1-ranked and eventual national champion Georgia Tech. With the match tied at three and despite battling cramps in her legs, Zoricic fought off No. 25-ranked Kirsten Flowers in three sets to clinch the Tribe victory. Zoricic finished last season at 30-8 overall with six wins over nationally ranked foes, including three against top-30 opponents.

Kasztelaniec enjoyed a breakout season in 2007. She finished last season at 25-9 overall in singles on her way to earning Third-Team All-CAA honors. She clinched both W&M victories in the NCAA Regional and claimed the College’s lone victory in singles play against Georgia at the No. 4 slot. Kasztelaniec played as high as No. 3 for the Tribe last season, but spent the majority of the campaign at No. 4. In dual matches, she put up an impressive 13-4 mark.

Zidek made the brunt of her impact in the doubles lineup, but when called upon was up to the task in the W&M’s singles rotation. For the second straight season, Zidek earned Second-Team All-CAA honors in doubles. She finished the year with 19 doubles wins and 17 singles victories.

The Tribe’s sophomore quartet of Acharya, Magdalena Bresson, Carmen Pop and Lauren Sabacinski was highly touted entering their rookie campaign in 2007 and more than lived up to the hype. The group was ranked No. 2 in the Tennis Recruiting Network freshman class rankings. Combined, the quartet went 96-29 (.768) in singles and 80-29 (.734) in doubles.

Acharya was one of the top freshmen nationally, racking up an impressive 32-5 singles ledger. She moved up the singles lineup and found a home at the No. 3 slot. Acharya’s singles winning percentage of .865 was the best ever for a W&M freshman and the second-highest overall in W&M history. At various times during the 2007 season, Acharya was ranked in the national singles rankings and won school-record 27-straight singles matches during her rookie campaign. The Pulaski, Va., native was named both the CAA and VaSID State Rookie of the Year in 2007.

Acharya continued her dominating play into the summer, winning the ITA Summer National Singles Championship in Bloomington, Ind. She defeated three of the top five seeded players at the event, including a win over the top-seed Lindsey Burdette of Stanford, who was an All-American in both singles and doubles and earned a final singles ranking of No. 23 in 2007.

Bresson and Sabacinski were both valuable pieces to the Tribe lineup at the No. 5 and No. 6 positions. Bresson was a Second-Team All-CAA selection and finished the year with 24 singles wins. She also won 30 doubles matches during her rookie campaign, which was the second-most for a Tribe freshman in school history.

Sabacinski was 15-4 in dual matches for the College on her way to a 26-7 overall singles ledger. She racked up a 10-4 dual-match record at the No. 6 position and a 5-0 mark at the No. 5 slot. Her singles winning percentage of .788 ranked as the ninth-best for a Tribe rookie in school history.

Pop finished her rookie season with a 13-4 singles mark. She won the opening 11 matches of W&M career. Pop won a pair of fall singles flights during her perfect 10-0 fall singles ledger.

W&M has a number of options in the doubles lineup highlighted by the All-America pair of Moulton-Levy and Zoricic. The duo finished last season at 40-4 overall and was the NCAA Doubles Championship runner up after winning the ITA National Indoor Doubles Championship during the fall season.

The doubles tandem of Kasztelaniec and Zidek earned Second-Team All-CAA honors. The Kasztelaniec-Zidek pair finished last season with a 9-4 record. The sophomore duo of Acharya and Bresson spent most of the 2007 season as a pair as well, playing at both the No. 2 and No. 3 pair’s slots. The tandem went 18-6 overall last season. Acharya and Bresson finished the year on a high note, clinching the doubles point in the Tribe’s CAA Championship match against VCU. The duo also won at the No. 3 slot against Georgia in the NCAA Round of 16 as part of its five-match winning streak to end the year.

Sabacinski could also figure into the Tribe’s doubles lineup having teamed with both Kasztelaniec and Acharya. Sabacinski and Kasztelaniec earned CAA Doubles Team of the Week honors after helping the Tribe to wins over Wake Forest and Penn. Acharya and Sabacinski were a perfect 3-0 in doubles during the 2007 season. The pair clinched the doubles point for the College in NCAA Regional victories over Richmond and Wake Forest.

The Tribe will once again face a gantlet of a schedule in 2008. The W&M ledger includes 13 matches against teams who competed in the NCAA Tournament in 2007, including five teams that advanced to the NCAA Round of 16. The list of opponents who advanced to the round of 16 last season includes Northwestern (Jan. 20), Baylor (Feb. 23), Stanford (March 4), California (March 5), Fresno State (March 7). To make matters even more challenging, all five of those contests will come on the road.

W&M will make a pair of extended road trips in California and Texas during the 2008 season. Over a two-week period, W&M will face six opponents who were ranked among the top 40 in the final ITA rankings on the road. W&M will face No. 27 Texas on Feb. 22 followed by road trips to No. 13 Baylor on Feb. 23 and No. 38 TCU on Feb. 24. The Tribe will battle three top-15 teams in No. 2 Stanford on March 4, No. 5 California on March 5 and No. 14 Fresno State on March 7.

Along with its challenging schedule, the Tribe will compete in the prestigious ITA National Indoor Championships in Madison, Wis. It will be the 12th appearance for the College in the National Indoor Championships and the first for the College since 2004. W&M will look for its 20th CAA title at the conference championship, April 17-20, in Newport News, Va. The NCAA Championships will be hosted by Tulsa University at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., May 15-26.