ZZ tops Cohen in singles finals

<p>On a team with three Zuzanas, Baylor freshman Zuzana Zemenova easily became "ZZ."</p><p>Now ZZ tops the college tennis world after her three-set win over Northwestern freshman Audra Cohen 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 Saturday in the NCAA Women's Championships at the University of Georgia.</p><p>In an all-Stanford doubles finals, Alice Barnes and Erin Burdette defeated teammates Amber Liu and Anne Yelsey 6-3, 6-4.</p><p>In the singles finale, the third-seeded Cohen hung on to win the error-plagued first set, but Zemenova seized the momentum with a clean second set after a reminder from coach Joey Scrivano to stick to the strategy. Scrivano had watched the first set from high above the Mikael Pernfors Court, but he wasted little time in getting to the court before the start of the second set.</p><p>"We tried to prepare ZZ before the match with the game plan," Scrivano said. "After I saw that first set not go our way, I was not going to stand by and watch her lose the match."</p><p>The key message Zemenova received from Scrivano was to play more aggressively.</p><p>"I started hitting more to her backhand," said Zemenova. "I tried to move her side to side more. I started playing more aggressively, and she started making more mistakes."</p><p>"ZZ's game is to be an aggressive baseliner and dictate with her forehand," Scrivano said. "What is unique is that she has such a tremendous backhand too."</p><p>It was two critical forehands in the last two games that clinched the match for her. Up 30-15 on Cohen's serve, Zemenova hit a forehand winner down the line to Cohen's deuce court that set up break point. Cohen double faulted.</p><p>On the first point of the last game, Zemenova hit another forehand winner down the line, this time to Cohen's backhand side. Cohen made three straight backand errors to end the week short of her goal.</p><p>"I never really loosened up the whole match," said Cohen, a freshman from Plantation, Fla. "It is hard to play so well all week and play your worst match on the last day."</p><p>"You have got to credit Cohen," said Scrivano. "You don't win 50-plus matches having a glaring weakness. "We knew we could not allow her to hit inside-out forehands. She is a monster from that side."</p><p>Cohen finished the season with a 51-7 record. Zemenova was 29-5.</p><p>The doubles championship was the fifth for Stanford, tying UCLA for the most by any one school. The Cardinal won the team championship with a perfect season. Stanford also qualified a record-tying seven players for the singles draw, but for the first time in the history of the tournament, no Stanford players advanced to the singles quarterfinals. Liu was the two-time defending champion.</p><p>Neither of its doubles teams was seeded.</p>

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