May 24, 2005

ATHENS, Ga. - Audra Cohen (Plantation, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) and Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) pushed through a slow start and continuing windy conditions in their first round match of the 2005 NCAA Doubles Championships Tuesday to defeat Gabrielle Duch and Neyssa Etienne of South Florida 6-2, 6-2.

"We just went out and played solid doubles and had fun out there," Grier said. "That's all you can do when you don't know your opponent. There are so many good doubles teams out here. Everyone has proven themselves to get here."

Seeded second in the 32-team draw, the Wildcat duo got off to a rough start. Grier had trouble with her ground stroke and Cohen missed a few easy put-aways. Before they knew it, they were in a 2-0 hole.

But the tandem pulled it together in the third game and broke the South Florida team to get on the board. Cohen then held serve to knot the score at 2-2, and the `Cats broke the Eagles again in the next game to take a 3-2 lead.

The fourth game was all Grier. Along with pinpointing a number of perfect serves, Grier highlighted the game by bailing out a whiffing Cohen with a moon-scraping lob shot that the wind pulled back into bounds just out of Duch and Etienne's reach. Northwestern took the next two games to claim the first set 6-2.

South Florida began the second set by holding serve, but Grier quickly regained control with a perfect service game. The `Cats broke the Eagles in the next game and Cohen followed by holding serve again, extending their lead to 3-1.

Cohen and Grier went on to win three of the next four games to claim the match, improving to 35-6 on the year.

Their second round match offers a chance to get back at one of the few teams to have beaten the duo this year. Michigan's Michelle DaCosta and Kara Delicata upset Cohen and Grier, 8-6, in the Big Ten Championship match back on May 1. The Wildcat tandem did, however, put together a marvelous comeback from a 7-2 deficit to defeat DaCosta and Delicata in the regular season, 9-7.

• Live scoring and daily results are available at UGA's tournament website and the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship page .

2005 NCAA Doubles Championships Second Round Results
#3 Audra Cohen/Cristelle Grier (NU) def. Gabrielle Duch/Neyssa Etienne (SOUTH FLORIDA), 6-2, 6-2

Cohen and Grier's Second Round Match
vs. Michelle DaCosta/Kara Delicata (MICH) @ 2 p.m. CT Wednesday, May 25

**NCAA DOUBLES NOTES**

• Stanford and Florida each have two teams left in the round of 16 while the other remaining 12 tandems hail from different schools.

• For the first time since the 2002 NCAA Championships, all four of the top seeds advanced to the round of 16.

• The last time the number one seed won the doubles title was in 2002 (Gabriela Lastra and Lauren Kalvaria of Stanford).

• There are eight players left in the singles draw (Round of 16) that are also won their opening round doubles match Tuesday to make it to the Round of 16: Marianna Yuferova (VCU), Anne Yelsey (STANFORD), Jennifer Magley (FLORIDA), Story Tweedie-Yates (TCU), Audra Cohen (NU), Riza Zalameda (UCLA), Zerene Reyes (FLORIDA) and Julie Coin (CLEMSON).