UK Women’s Tennis Nation’s Top Doubles Team Named ITA All-Americans

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced on Thursday morning that Kentucky’s top doubles team of Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi was named to the 2016 Division I All-America Doubles Team.
The Wildcat duo is the first to garner All-America distinction for Kentucky since Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk accomplished the feat in the 2007 season. To earn All-America in doubles, a pairing must meet any of the following criteria: a top eight seed in the NCAA Doubles Championship, reach the quarterfinals in the NCAA Doubles Championship, or finish in the Top 10 of the final Oracle/ITA National Doubles Rankings.
Adachi and Sutjiadi not only met one of the selection criteria, but all three. The Wildcats received the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament and advanced to the quarterfinals before bowing out to UCLA’s Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips. Additionally, they were tabbed as the nation’s top team in the final Oracle/ITA National Doubles Rankings on June 1.
In total, 14 women’s doubles teams received All-America honors. The Southeastern Conference was represented by five teams, with Pleun Burgmans/Alizee Michaud of Auburn, Brooke Austin/Kourtney Keegan of Florida, Hadley Berg/Paige Cline of South Carolina, and Ellen Perez/Mariana Gould of Georgia also being recognized as some of the nation’s best pairings.
Adachi and Sutjiadi enjoyed one of the most doubles campaigns put together by a Wildcat duo. During the dual season, the two had a 17-set winning streak to help Kentucky secure all but three of the doubles points over the course of 28 matches. Additionally, they rolled through the SEC opponents with an 11-0 mark. They met with Stanford’s Melissa Lord and Carol Zhao in the first round of the NCAA Doubles Championship and came away with a three-set victory, and had another triple-setter against Mississippi State’s Madison Harrison and Kristina Vozniak to become the first Kentucky pair to advance to the quarterfinals since 2003. They also enjoyed a successful fall campaign, finishing runner-up in two national championship tournament finals.
The ITA also released its final regional rankings, which marked Kentucky as the No. 2 team in the Ohio Valley Region behind Vanderbilt. Adachi and Sutjiadi are naturally the top doubles team in the region, with Akvilė Paražinskaitė and Morgan Chumney holding down the No. 6 spot while Nadia Ravita and Justina Mikulskytė are the No. 9 team in the region. In singles, Adachi is ranked No. 4 in the OVR behind a trio of Vandy players, followed by Mikulskytė at No. 7 and Paražinskaitė at No. 11.
Visit UKathletics.com for the most up-to-date information on the Kentucky women’s tennis team and all 22 varsity sports. For additional info, notes, and behind-the-scenes updates, follow the team on Twitter at @UKWomensTennis and on Facebook.
by Chloe Smith