Vallverdu Set To Begin Play At All-American Championships
Oct. 3, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Calif. –The 2007 Riviera/ITA All-American Championship Main Draw gets underway Thursday with University of Miami sophomore Laura Vallverdu set to take on some of the top collegiate players in the country in one of the nation’s most prestigious events this week.
The main draw portion of the tournament is a four-day event that concludes with the championship match, Sunday, Oct. 4. The 32-player singles tournament features each region’s top-ranked player, 2007 ITA All-Americans and eight qualifiers from this past week’s qualifying round.
Vallverdu, who was an automatic qualifier for the main draw having been named to the ITA All-American team a season ago, will be taking on UCLA’s Tracy Lin in the first round on Thursday. The tournament, which guarantees each player a minimum of two matches, has a consolation bracket for first round losers while any losses after the first round on the winner’s side result in elimination.
Vallverdu is coming off one of the best freshman seasons in UM history finishing the 2006-07 campaign with a stellar 32-4 singles record. After compiling a singles’ record of 19-2 in the fall of 2006, Vallverdu earned a national No. 6 ranking heading into the spring season, the highest ranking of any freshman. She never fell out of the top 25 at any point during her freshman campaign, ending the season ranked No. 19 by the ITA. Playing mostly in the No. 2 singles position, Vallverdu began her career winning 29 of her first 31 matches, establishing herself as one of the top freshmen in the country.
She was also named to the 2007 All-ACC team, the 2007 All-ACC Academic Team and to the 2007 NCAA All-Tournament Team. She also advanced to the round of 32 at the ITA South Regional Championships and earned an at-large bid for the 2007 NCAA Singles Championships where she fell to Vanderbilt’s Catherine Newman, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round.
This will be Vallverdu’s second appearance at the Riviera/ITA All American Championships. Last season as a freshman, she defeated Stanford’s Ann Yelsy, ranked 11th in the country at the time, 7-6, 6-2, before falling in the second round of play to eighth-ranked Lindsey Nelson of Southern California, 6-1, 6-4.
