NC State
Pepperdine University
No. 22 Frantova/Rogers Set For NCAA Doubles Championship
5/24/2017 12:09:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Duo becomes third in NC State’s history to make tournament
Bracket  |   Live Stats/Stream
Championship Central
RALEIGH— The No. 22 doubles tandem of Martina Frantova and Anna Rogers are set to represent NC State in the NCAA Doubles Championship held at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. Competition will begin on Thursday, May 25 and run through May 29.Â
Frantova and Rogers will kick off the championship on Thursday in the Round of 32 and are slated to play #5-8 seed Christine Maddox and Mayar Sherif Ahmed of Pepperdine, who were ranked No. 8 in the country in the latest ITA poll. First serve is set for 5 p.m.
Chasing History
The Wolfpack tandem will attempt to make a run to the Sweet 16, a feat that no Wolfpack team has ever accomplished. The duo marks just the third doubles team in program history to earn a bid to the championship, and the first since Sanna Bhambri and Sandhya Nagaraj qualified in 2011.
Senior Frantova and freshman Rogers have already distinguished themselves as NC State's best doubles players in program history. Rogers will enter the Championship with a winning percentage of .962 while Frantova sits close behind with a percentage of .958. Both surpass the previous record of .737 set by Mary Lloyd-Hodges in 1986-87.
Season Success
The standout tandem has accumulated a record of 23-1 throughout the season, and has remained undefeated in its last 17 matches. The pair is fresh off two wins at the NCAA Tournament, where they defeated Oregon's Julia Eshet and Shweta Sangan by a score of 6-1, followed by an upset victory over Georgia's No. 3 Caroline Brinson and Ellen Perez with a 6-4 decision. Their lone loss this season came from a dropped matched against North Carolina's No. 4 Jessie Aney and Hayley Carter.
Against ranked opponents, Frantova and Rogers hold a 6-1 ledger.Â
Scouting the Competition
Thursday's match will be the second time this season the two squads have met on the courts, as they played each other once before during the ITA Kick Off event in January. The match went unfinished as the Waves led by a score of 3-2.
Pepperdine's duo holds a 15-3 season record and has won 11 straight matches. During the NCAA Tournament, Maddox and Sherif tallied three wins, as their team advanced to the quarterfinals. They defeated Anna Grigoryan/Ana Leonte (LIU Brooklyn) with a final score of 6-3; No. 3 Brincson/Perez (Georgia) by a 6-4 decision; and cruised to an 6-2 upset over No. 1 Astra Sharma/Emily Smith (Vanderbilt).Â
Against ranked opponents, Maddox and Sherif own a 10-6 record.Â
The winner of the match will advance to the Round of 16 and will face either Amina Ismail/Beatriz Machado Santos (Missouri) or Maya Jansen/Maegan Manassee (California) on Friday.
Fans can find more information about the Championship here.
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Players Mentioned
