May 21, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Tex. -- The ODU women's tennis duo of senior Charleen Haarhoff (Durban, South Africa) and sophomore Nadine Fahoum (Haifa, Israel) upset the 22nd ranked Duke tandem and advanced at the 2009 NCAA Women's Tennis Championships. After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker, the Lady Monarchs ran off a pair of wins, 6-3, 6-1, to advance.
Haarhoff and Fahoum jumped to a 3-1 lead in the first set, but the Duke women rallied to win three of the next four to tie it at four apiece. Melissa Mang and Amanda Granson for Duke continued pressing and went ahead 6-5. The Lady Monarchs would force the tiebreaker on a nifty frontcourt volley from Fahoum and a hard winner from Haarhoff. Duke would win the tiebreaker, though and take the first set, 7-6.
Despite the first set loss, the Old Dominion pair would take control early in the second and would take the first round win with ease the rest of the way. They would take the second set, 6-3, and then only give up a single game in the third, winning 6-1.
They will advance to play the top seeded and top ranked team from Fresno State, Renata Kucerkova and Anastasia Petukhova, tomorrow. The Lady Monarchs improved to 26-7 for the season and will face the #1 Bulldogs pair tomorrow at 1:00 pm EST.