May 20, 2003

Gainesville, Fla. – The careers of two senior UK women’s tennis players continued for at least one more day on Tuesday at the 2003 NCAA Women’s Individual Tennis Championships being played at Florida’s Ring Tennis Complex.

The ninth-ranked Wildcat duo of Sarah Witten and Amy Trefethen advanced to the second round of doubles competition after defeating Texas Tech’s Beverly Dawson and Irina Tereschenko, 7-6, 6-0. The senior tandem struggled a bit in the first set trading games with the Lady Raiders team before winning a tiebreaker, 7-5. In the second set the Cats settled down on their way to shutting out the Texas Tech duo. This is Trefethen’s first appearance in the NCAA Individual Tournament.

“I was a little tight in the first set,” Trefethen said. “They were a good team and we just had to settle down and play the way we’ve played all year. We should do better in the next round.”

Witten and Trefethen will face Ziva Grasic and Kendra Strohm of Texas at approximately noon on Wednesday.

In singles action, Witten, ranked 39th nationally, defeated Vanderbilt’s Sarah Riske in straight sets, 6-3,6-3, to advance to the round of 16. The victory earned her a singles All-America team selection. It is Witten’s first singles selection and the fourth for her career. She has been named All-America in doubles each of the last three years.

“This is a great feeling,” Witten said. “Riske is a good player. I wanted to make All-American in singles and doubles this year and I’ve done that. It’s a huge accomplishment and I’m happy I could get it done.”

Witten will face Stanford’s Amber Liu on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Fans can follow the action live on the Web at GatorZone.com.