No. 37 Terps Await NCAA Tournament Announcement
6/21/1999 8:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 26, 1999
COLLEGE PARK, Md.-- On May 5, the Terps will learn their fate as the NCAA announces the 58 teams that will take part in the postseason championship tournament. Fourty-eight teams are selected for the six regional tournaments and the winners will then join the top 10 teams--who received byes--in the final round to be held in Gainesville, Fla. In addition to the team event, 64 individuals and 32 doubles teams will be selected to compete. Currently, Meg Griffin (Topeka, Kan.) is No. 92 nationally in singles (Top 5 in the East Region) and she and partner Lorraine Bittles (Nashville, Tenn.) are No 18 in doubles. Last season, the Terps were defeated by Kentucky in the NCAA Regionals and the Bittles-Griffin were also ousted in the first round by a top 10 team from Marquette. Maryland has never had a representative in all three facets of the NCAA Championships.
ROLE REVERSAL: HEELS SWEEP DOUBLES TO CLINCH ACC QUARTERFINAL WIN
On April 10, Maryland traveled to Chapel Hill and came away winning all three doubles matches, but only once in singles. This time around, the fifth-seeded Terrapins won three of the top four singles spots, but were swept in doubles as No. 27 fourth seed North Carolina outlasted the Terps, 5-3 in the quarterfinal round of the ACC Championships.
At No. 1 singles, senior Meg Griffin battled with Carolina's Jessica Zaganczyk to split the first two sets, but lost by a narrow 7-5 margin in the third. The Terps won the next three spots as juniors Lorraine Bittles and Stacy Walkowitz (Coral Springs, Fla.) each avenged straight set losses from earlier this season. Bittles, playing in the second slot, defeated Caroline Hill, 6-3, 7-5 and Walkowitz topped Cena Hackler, 6-4, 6-2, at No. 3. The win was Walkowitz's third consecutive ACC singles victory. Sophomore Chrissie Terrill (Plano, Tex.) gained the third Terrapin team point with her come from behind victory over Sarah Hawkins. In the finals two positions, however, the Tar Heels notched wins to even the score at 3 to set up their doubles sweep.
MARYLAND COACH JIM LAITTA
In his ninth season, Jim Laitta (Eastern Kentucky '89) has taken what once was an underfunded program onto the national tennis scene. He has led the Terps to the school's first two NCAA appearances as well as finishes in the top half of the conference for the past few years. In 1996, he was named both ACC and NCAA Region I Coach of the Year by his peers. Before Maryland, he was the head women's coach at Mississippi State University. While there, the program finished in the national Top 20 and captured an NCAA doubles championship. Laitta played collegiately at Eastern Kentucky University where he was team captain and played No. 1 singles and doubles.
NEXT TERPS MEET
1999 NCAA Regionals
May 14-16; Site: TBA
Last season, Maryland lost to Kentucky by a 5-3 margin.
1999 NCAA Finals
May 20-26; Site: U. of Florida
Last season, Griffin and Bittles were defeated in the opening round.
