Women’s Tennis

No. 3-seed Audra Cohen cruised into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA singles tournament, easily defeating her second-round opponent, Baylor’s Carolin Walter, 6-1, 7-5.

Her next opponent is Kristi Miller of Georgia Tech, a player with whom Cohen is very familiar.

Miller and Cohen were frequent doubles partners in juniors, even winning a Supernational Championship.

Cohen downplayed the importance of the match.

“I’ve played with her a lot,” Cohen said. “If I go out and play my game, I should do fine.”

If Cohen gets past her former teammate, an open draw awaits her.

Four of the top eight seeds were eliminated in the first two rounds, including No. 1-seed Megan Bradley of Miami, who was upset by Virginia Commonwealth’s Marianna Yuferova, the player who defeated junior Cristelle Grier in Monday’s first-round match.

“It’s always nice to see the opponent that beat you progressing further,” Grier said.

One of the seeded players remaining is No. 2 Julie Coin, a Clemson player who defeated Cohen and sealed the Cats’ defeat in the team portion of the tournament.

Cohen said another shot at Coin is exciting, but she is keeping her focus on the present rather than on a possible chance for revenge.

“Every opponent you play here is great,” she said. “This is probably the most loaded tournament I’ve ever been in.”

Cohen and Grier, the No. 2 doubles team in the country, lost three of their last four matches heading into the first round of the doubles tournament Tuesday, including an 8-1 drubbing in Northwestern’s third-round loss to Clemson in the NCAA tournament.

Grier and Cohen won their first-round doubles match and will play again today.

On Tuesday, Grier and Cohen stumbled out of the gate, losing the first two games to South Florida’s Gabrielle Duch and Neyssa Etienne, considerable underdogs.

That’s when they decided enough was enough.

The pair won the rest of the games in the first set and easily took the second 6-2.

“It was probably one of our better matches,” Cohen said. “We just felt really confident throughout.”

The win improved the duo’s record to 35-6.

Despite the Wildcats’ slow start, coach Claire Pollard said she never doubted the match’s outcome.

“We kind of got on top of them early and didn’t let them believe they could win,” she said.

Grier and Cohen also have a history with their second round doubles opponents, Michigan’s Michelle DaCosta and Kara Delicata.

After a hard-fought, 9-7 victory in March, Grier and Cohen dropped another close match to the Michigan pair in the finals of the Big Ten tournament.

DaCosta and Delicata defeated Grier and Cohen on an indoor court, a surface that complemented their strong serves and shot-making abilities.

Grier said their familiarity with the opponents and playing outdoors will help neutralize the Michigan duo’s strengths.

“I think now that we’ve played them twice we’ll be aware of what to look out for,” she said.

Even as the Cats move deeper into the tournament, the shock of their early exit from the team portion NCAA tournament lingers, and Pollard said the successes of Grier and Cohen will do little to mend the situation.

“I don’t know that we can console ourselves from a team point of view,” she said. “We’ll take pride in whatever we do this week.”

Reach David Morrison at [email protected].