Semifinals set for penultimate day of NCAA Championships

ATHENS, Ga. -- For the second consecutive year, a top seed will not win a singles championship at the NCAA Tennis Championships after UNC’s Jaime Loeb was eliminated at the quarterfinal stage.

The top-seeded Loeb, who has played every day of the tournament after her team advanced to the team championships, was beaten by Lynn Chi of California 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Chi moved into the semifinals to face Georgia State’s Abigail Tere-Apisah.

The unseeded Panther had already made school history by reaching the quarterfinals. She continued to rewrite the school record book as she advanced to the semifinal with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory against No.5 Beatrice Capra of Duke.

The other half of the semifinals were set as Ester Goldfield and Danielle Collins booked their place in the final four. Goldfield of Duke pushed passed Chanelle Van Nguyen of UCLA with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory and, in the process, booked a date against Virginia’s Collins. Collins defeated the seventh seeded Hayley Carter 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

The women’s doubles draw saw two of the top four seeds advance to the final four. The highest remaining seed, the No.2 Georgia pair of Maho Kowase and Lauren Herring, eased into the semifinals at breakneck speed, topping Baylor’s Victoria Kisialeva and Blair Shankle 6-3, 6-1. They will face Pleun Burgmans and Emily Flickinger of Auburn. The Tigers duo downed UNC’s Jaime Loeb and Hayley Carter 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

In the other semifinal, Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe of Alabama, the fourth seeded team, will battle Duke’s Beatrice Capra and Hanna Mar.

The Crimson Tide duo moved into the final four with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 victory over the Miami pair of Monique Albuquerque and Clementina Riobueno. Their opponents, Capra and Mar, advanced with a commanding 7-5, 6-2 victory over UNC’s Whitney Kay and Carolina Price.