Hurricane Tennis 2014-15

Kirijax
4 min read
The men's and women's tennis teams started out with different goals this year. While one team's goals turned into a barren wasteland of ashes and dust, there were some definite signs of hope for the other team for the 2015-16 season. Better to start with the good first to help digest the bad later.
The women's team started out this year with a lot of question marks. There were the solid upperclassmen led by Stephanie Wagner, joined by five freshmen. Interestingly enough, the team had zero Americans on it roster. It reads like a United Nations roll call. Just comes to show that Miami is getting slammed on the recruiting trail for both the men and women and they have been forced to go out to find some players to be competitive. Coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews found some good ones though. Of the five, Sinead Lohan and Wendy Zhang especially stood out over the season.
For the season, the women finished with a record of 18-7 (ACC 12-2), a disappointing quarterfinal finish in the ACC Championships (upset loss to Florida State) and a Sweet Sixteen spot in the NCAA Championships. In the NCAAs, the Canes lost to No. 2 North Carolina, but they have made the NCAA Sweet Sixteen or better 10 consecutive years. In the singles, Wagner shocked a lot of college tennis fans when she upset No. 1 Robin Anderson of UCLA in the quarterfinals to advance to the Final Four. She was defeated there but it was a great success for her. Sinead Lohan also made it to the quarterfinals. With these two leading the way, the women's season next year could be very interesting. Both of them won ITA All-American honors this year. Vanderbilt won the women's NCAA Championship.

Women's Team Ranking: No. 15

Singles:
Stephanie Wagner No. 9
Sinead Lohan No. 20
Clementina Riobueno No. 87
Wendy Zhang No. 101
Lina Lileikite No. 112

Doubles:
Lina Lileikite/Stephanie Wagner No. 21
Monique Albuquerque/Clementina Riobueno No. 58

By contrast, the men's team was an utter disaster. They started out the season ranked No. 55 but quickly dropped out of the ITA rankings after a few upset losses to Central Florida, Tulane, and Florida Gulf Coast (!). Freshmen Piotr Lomacki was forced into the No. 1 slot and struggled, ending the season with a 9-10 singles record. At one point, the Canes lost five consecutive dual matches with a 0-7 score. During that span, they lost 70 out of 75 sets played. Their biggest win of the season came during the last regular season match when freshman Christian Langmo defeated No. 4 and 2015 NCAA Singles Champion Rick Shane of Virginia. With zero chance of getting to the NCAA tournament, the Canes season ended in the first round of the ACC tournament against Duke. Since the start of the tennis team in the 30s, the Canes had only seven losing records but they racked up their eighth this year. The official site had this to say after their season ending loss.

Miami ends the season 7-17 overall and 1-12 in the ACC, but has high hopes for the 2015-16 campaign as the young and talented Canes return eight players, including seven freshmen and one sophomore.

It can't get any worse I hope.

Men's Team Ranking:
ITA: Unranked
Massey's Rankings: No. 103

Singles:
Piotr Lomacki No. 79

For the record, I haven't heard any news about Coach Mario Rincon losing his job, and the recruiting continues to flounder, so we'll get to see if Coach Rincon can get the ship righted. He has been at Miami for 11 season and has missed the NCAA tournament in six of those seasons. It's becoming more and more apparent that his job will be safe for awhile. Go Canes!
 

Comments (114)

Time to start a new thread for the 2014-15 tennis teams! The first bit of news is about Canes commit Christian Langmo. He has been having a great summer, winning two tournaments and finishing runner-up in a third. He has defeated a top ten player from next year's seniors and also defeated a Michigan commit in one of the tournaments. He has gotten his ranking back up to #19 in the nation. He is currently without a coach which makes it even more amazing. Will be interesting to see what Rincon and ****son can help him out with when he gets started there.

Canes Commit Christian Langmo Rising

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On the women's side, I saw a couple days ago that Kelsey Laurente transferred to the Oklahoma State Cowboys. She was suspended for an unknown reason right before the NCAA tournament (must have been pretty bad) so this news surprises no one. It's gonna hurt though, because Laurente was ranked as high as No. 33 in the country last year and was a solid No. 2, sometimes No. 1 in the lineup.

With Laurente leaving, the roster is at five. The bare minimum needed for dual team play is six. So what happen now? The school just announced that they have five freshmen signed for next year. There is blue-chip and No. 5 Yolimar Ogando from Puerto Rico, Judith Bohnenkamp from Germany, Silvia Fuentes from Spain, Sinead Lohan from Ireland and Wendy Zhang from Canada. Hard to say what kind of team we will have next year on the women's side. Could go either way.

Laurente Transfers, Five Freshmen Coming In
 
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I take it domestically tennis is on a downswing.

Miami is losing out badly in getting the top recruits in the States so they have no choice but to go overseas to stay somewhat competitive. Not that it helped the men's team much last year.
 
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I truly wish I could contribute to this thread.
 
ITA Summer Circuit is underway. William Albanese has made the quarterfinals of both tourneys he has played so far. Clementina Riobueno made the semis of the Alabama tourney and won the doubles title.

Canes in the ITA Summer Circuit

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The spanish girl Silva looks like a front runner for rookie of the year so far , mostly because the other pics aren't as good . Nice site Btw .
 
The spanish girl Silva looks like a front runner for rookie of the year so far , mostly because the other pics aren't as good . Nice site Btw .

Thanks. I had to dig for the pics I finally found. Will update as I find them!
 
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My bi-annual rant on the scoreboard system of college tennis. I wonder what would happen to college football if it had the same problem?

Wake Up, College Tennis

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Clementina Riobueno won last week's ITA Summer Circuit tourney at the University of Florida. This will qualify her for the national championships in August, I think. Although I have no idea how ITA does anything. Still, a doubles title at Alabama and a singles title at Florida. Not bad!

Riobueno Wins Florida ITA Summer Circuit Tourney
 
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The NCAA is at it again. They have recommended rule changes again to try to make the sport more "fan-friendly". There are so many problems with this and most players, coaches and fans are against it. Tennis doesn't need to change. The way they market it and get the information out is what needs to change.

NCAA MAKES RULE CHANGES FOR COLLEGE TENNIS. AGAIN.
 
Looks like another Cane is transferring out of Miami. William Albanese, a junior for the upcoming year has disappeared from the official Miami roster. On the ITA Summer National Championships draw, he has Arkansas listed as his school. Albanese was did pretty good in the bottom of the line up last year and it will be disappointing to see him go. I sent the team several Twitter messages but they have not responded. The team now has four remaining players from last year with four or five new recruits coming in. Hard to tell what sort of year is in store for the Canes. Although it can't get much worse. They have missed three consecutive NCAA tournaments for the first time ever so they will either fall completely out of the national rankings (No. 55 last year) or make a run at a NCAA berth. Impossible to predict anything at this point.
 
Many thanks to Andrew who added tennis to the forum title!
 
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