ATHENS, Ga. (May 24, 2017) – FIU sophomore
Andrea Lazaro fell to Florida's Belinda Woolcock, 6-3, 6-2, in the opening round of the 2017 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Singles Championship in Athens, Georgia, on Wednesday evening.
Ranked No. 51 in the latest Oracle/ITA National Rankings, Lazaro suffered just her fifth defeat of the season ,ending the year with a 20-5 overall mark. The match marked the Lazaro's first appearance in the NCAA Championships and the third appearance by an FIU Panther in the women's individual championship.
Named this year's Conference USA Player of the Year, Lazaro earned the league's automatic bid into the tournament. Prior to the NCAA championships, the native of Barcelona, Spain, closed out the regular season with seven-straight wins. She went 14-1 in dual matches (all at the No. 1 position) and, following the loss to the No. 6-ranked Woolcock, registered a 4-3 record versus ranked opponents.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Facebook (
Facebook.com/FIUWTennis) for all the latest FIU women's tennis news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (
Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
About FIU:
Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute. FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
