Hard to find fault in UA’s seniors

BY ROB KEYS

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/225190/

FAYETTEVILLE — When Audrey Bordeleau and Maryori Franco reported for their freshman seasons at Arkansas, the Lady Razorbacks tennis team had lost 40 consecutive matches against SEC opponents.

Times have changed.

Arkansas, ranked 17 th nationally, opens play in the NCAA Tournament at noon today against Wake Forest. The match will be played at No. 14 North Carolina, which meets South Carolina State in today’s other first-round match, and the winner from the four-team field will advance to the NCAA Championships that will be held in Tulsa starting Thursday.

Today’s match marks the second time Bordeleau and Franco have played in an NCAA Tournament, but their appearance two years ago was under entirely different conditions.

“Two years ago we got in, barely, and we were just happy to be in the tournament,” Bordeleau said. “That’s kind of the philosophy we had and we didn’t expect anything.

“ This year, we were an inch away from hosting... and we want to win our first two rounds, make it to Tulsa, and see if we can win the whole thing. The sky’s the limit for us this year.”

If that kind of talk sounds bold, consider that Arkansas has the No. 1 singles player in the country in junior Aurelija Miseviciute and the 73 rd-ranked player in classmate Ela Kaluder. Those two also are ranked 29 th among doubles teams.

Arkansas has enjoyed some positive results against tennis heavyweights this season, too, going 4-6 against Top 25 teams. That total includes three consecutive 4-3 losses at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in February.

“Everybody understood that we were inches away from being maybe top five in the country,” Coach Michael Hegarty said. “We didn’t really have to pull anybody out of the ditch beside the road or anything like that.”

Arkansas’ confidence was further bolstered when the Lady Razorbacks knocked off four ranked teams in a span of 17 days in March. Bordeleau and Franco played pivotal roles during that stretch. Bordeleau clinched road victories at Vanderbilt and Kentucky while Franco sealed a home victory over Georgia.

Bordeleau and Franco took different paths to their current roles. Franco was one of the world’s top-ranked juniors when she signed as part of Hegarty’s first full recruiting class.

“Maryori certainly accomplished plenty considering how good she was coming in, and everybody sort of expected great things from her,” Hegarty said. “For her to have been as successful as she is, is no surprise.”

Not as many predicted Bordeleau’s impact.

“When she came in, not a lot of people were too scared of Audrey... and for her to progress the way that she’s progressed and really gotten a ton better every year has really been an incredibly great story,” Hegarty said.

Now the two are winding down their careers, a bittersweet time of promise and reflection.

“It’s really hard being away from home, from another country, and not having any family here,” said Franco, a native of Barranquilla, Colombia. “It’s really nice to have all the people that come out to the matches and support us. I’m going to miss them and miss being part of the team.”

Bordeleau came to Arkansas from Quebec City, Quebec, largely because she had faith in Hegarty’s ability to turn around the Lady Razorbacks program. It’s a transformation that sometimes seems hard to fathom.

“It was just going to take hard work and discipline, and that’s what we did,” Bordeleau said. “I knew we could do it, but I can’t believe we actually did it.” NCAA Tournament No. 17 Arkansas vs. Wake Forest WHAT First round of NCAA Tournament WHEN Noon Central today WHERE Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center, Chapel Hill, N. C. NOTEWORTHY No. 14 North Carolina will play South Carolina State in today’s other firstround match, with the winners meeting at 3 p. m. Saturday.... The winner of Saturday’s match advances to the 16-team NCAA Championships, which begin Thursday in Tulsa.