University of Georgia Athletics
Doubles Champions Crowned At NCAA Tennis Championships
May 28, 2007 | General
ATHENS, Ga. --- It was a day of firsts at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on Monday, as both the Middle Tennessee State men’s program and the North Carolina women’s program claimed their first NCAA tennis titles with doubles championships by Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom (MTSU) and Sara Anundsen and Jenna Long (UNC).
Both winning teams dropped first sets but recovered to take the next two en route to becoming NCAA Champions.
In men’s doubles, the defending national champions were dethroned, as Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom both Seniors at Middle Tennis State University defeated Illinois’ Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe. Anderson and Rowe won the title in 2006.
The Middle Tennessee tandem didn’t get discouraged after dropping the first set 6-4. Its broken serve in that first set was the only one in the match except for a pair of exchanged breaks in the second set. Born and Siljestrom took both of the final two sets to tiebreakers, winning the first one 8-6 and the second 7-4.
Anderson and Rowe were attempting to become the first pair in NCAA history to win back-to-back doubles titles since current tournament format was implemented in 1977. Instead, Born and Siljestrom won Middle Tennessee’s first NCAA men’s tennis title in program history. They did so in head coach Dale Short’s final match coached, as he is retiring after 20 years at the helm.
“We're extremely happy to have come out on top today,” Born said. “We are both seniors and our coach is retiring, so we really wanted to win this match. It means a lot to all of us. No one from MTSU has ever won an NCAA championship in anything, so winning today was huge.”
Born and Siljestrom won the 2005 ITA All-American Championships and lost in the finals of the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships the last two yearsMiddle Tennessee has won three national championships in tennis, all at the All-American Championships (two in doubles, one in singles). None have been NCAA titles, however.
The MTSU duo finishes the year with a 36-5 overall record.
In women’s doubles, both top seeds faced off for the national title, and No. 2-seeded Sara Anundsen and Jenna Long of North Carolina upset top-seeded Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic of William & Mary in another thee-set contest.
The first set was all William & Mary, as the Tribe tandem took the opening frame 6-1. But the North Carolina pair controlled the remainder of the match, winning both of the next two sets by identical 6-2 margins.
"We got blown out in the first set and we weren't sure what hit us," Long said. "They are a great team, but we didn't give up and we played much better in the second and third sets."
Anundsen and Long, already two-time All-America performers in doubles, joined former Tar Heel Cinda Gurney as the only NCAA finalists in school history when they advanced to the championship match. Then just like MTSU men’s doubles team did, this pair claimed the first NCAA women’s tennis title in the Tarheels’ program history.
The Tarheel tandem finishes the year with a 24-3 overall record, and Anundsen and Long both seniors finish their careers as national champions.
Match Results
Men’s Doubles Final
[5-8] Marco Born/Andreas Siljestrom (MTSU) def. [5-8] Kevin Anderson/Ryan Rowe (ILL) 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4)
Women’s Doubles Final
[2] Sara Anundsen/Jenna Long (UNC) def. [1] Megan Moulton-Levy/Katarina Zoricic (WM) 1-6, 6-2, 6-2
