First-year coach has tennis team on brink of MAC title

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12:35 AM Thursday, April 21, 2011

Anca Dumitrescu took nothing for granted last August when she was named as the fifth Miami University women’s tennis coach in the last four years.

“After all the coaches they’ve had, the one question I had coming in was, ‘How receptive would they be?’ ” she said. “They’ve been very receptive.”

Under Dumitrescu, the RedHawks are 15-5 overall and have won all six of their Mid-American Conference matches, running their remarkable MAC regular-season winning streak to 28 in a row.

Now that’s receptive.

No. 29 in a row would be huge, because the 79th-ranked RedHawks face the 74th-ranked Akron Zips, who also are 6-0 in the MAC, at 1 p.m. Friday at Miami’s Hepburn Courts.

The winner clinches a share of the MAC championship, with a chance to win it outright on Saturday — Miami is at home against Buffalo, Akron is at Ball State — and also earns the No. 1 seed in the MAC tournament, to be held April 29-May 1 in Ypsilanti, Mich.

Despite the 28 straight, Dumitrescu continues to take nothing for granted.

“No match is easy, especially in your conference,” she said. “All teams are going to come after us, and we’re prepared for that.

“I always believe this team is capable of doing special things,” she added.

Despite the coaching changes, the one constant, Dumitrescu said, has been the leadership of seniors Sydnee Bridger, Anastasia Dracheva, Megan Martzolf and Cara Wald.

“They have great character and have been able to lead the team in the right direction,” Dumitrescu said. “Teamwork, work ethic, determination and a competitive spirit — those are qualities you feel in all of our seniors.”

Martzolf has won 11 straight at No. 3 singles, and in the last 10 matches Dracheva and junior Stephanie Danesis both have gone 9-1 while alternating at No. 1 and 2 singles.

The season hasn’t been all sunshine for the RedHawks. After winning their first four nonleague contests, Miami dropped four out of their next five with the losses coming against Iowa, Kansas State, Michigan State and Kentucky.

“We’ve had moments when we’ve risen to the occasion,” Dumitrescu said, “and some moments when we’ve faced adversity against some very good teams and learned from the experience. If we continue to focus only on the things we can control, there is no limit on how far this team can go.”

Sizzling in softball

Junior right-hander Jessica Simpson continues to be a dominant force in the MAC.

Simpson, who lost a no-hitter Tuesday on a sixth-inning infield single in Miami’s 3-0 win over Butler, has recording 210 strikeouts in 197 2/3 innings and has seen her ERA drop from 1.65 last season to 1.63 this year.

Miami insider

Pete ConRAD

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