Texas holds off Georgia Tech in NCAA women's tennis

<p>For Petra Dizdar of Texas, playing in front of a loud group of Georgia Tech supporters was just what she needed.</p><p>Dizdar fought off a comeback attempt by Georgia Tech freshman Kristi Miller at No. 1 singles to lead the Longhorns to a 4-3 win in the round of 16 of the NCAA Women's Tennis Championships Thursday.</p><p>Dizdar won 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, helped in the final game when an out call by Miller was overruled by the chair umpire.</p><p>"I guess the Tech people don't know what kind of player I am," said Dizdar. "I love the intensity. I would rather have all those people pulling against me than for me because it motivates me."</p><p>"I wanted the chance to be able to clinch the match," said Miller, ranked 12th in the country. "And I lost. I couldn't have asked for a cooler atmosphere."</p><p>Georgia Tech (21-4), which won its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship this year, had never advanced as far as the sweet 16.</p><p>"We had a heck of a run, and it was a lot of fun," said Bryan Shelton, Tech's coach.</p><p>In other matches Thursday, top-seeded Stanford shut out Harvard (19-7) 4-0, host Georgia beat California 4-1, North Carolina ousted fourth-seeded Vanderbilt (22-6) 4-0, Clemson rallied past Northwestern 4-3, Kentucky beat Tulane (25-6) 4-1, and Florida eliminated Baylor (24-6) 4-2.</p><p>In a late match, UCLA played cross-town rival Southern Cal.</p><p>Late matches featured UCLA against Southern Cal and Florida against Baylor.</p><p>The quarterfinals matches will include Stanford (24-0) vs. Georgia (18-7), North Carolina (23-9) vs. Clemson (21-8), Texas (23-5) vs. Kentucky (26-5) and the late match winners.</p><p>Georgia dominated the doubles, losing just four of 27 games to California (14-9).</p><p>"We set the tone in doubles," said Coach Jeff Wallace.</p><p>Sophomore Natalie Frazier clinched the win for Georgia with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Cal's Stephanie Kusano at No. 2 singles. She cited her aggressiveness as a key factor in the win.</p><p>"Being aggressive was not our theme today," said Wallace. "We talked about keeping the ball in play and being solid. Doing that allowed us to be aggressive. When the opportunities were there, we capitalized on them."</p><p>Two-time NCAA singles champ Amber Liu led the Cardinal to its 53rd straight win over the last two seasons.</p><p>Stanford beat Georgia 4-0 in the national team indoors in February.</p><p>The match between Clemson and Northwestern (26-3) came down to the No. 1 singles, where Clemson's Julie Coin, the nation's second-ranked player, defeated Audra Cohen, No. 4 in the nation, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.</p><p>Clemson beat North Carolina 5-2 during the season.</p><p>It took two hours and 20 minutes for Florida's Zerene Reyes to outlast Baylor's Zuzana Cerna 7-5, 6-4 at No. 2 singles and clinch the win for the Gators (21-2).</p>

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