NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships : Stanford’s Lisa Green Beats No. 3 Ronni Reis

In the span of two days, Stanford’s Lisa Green has played against a human ball machine and a poor-woman’s version of Martina Navratilova.

Green lost to the ball machine, Georgia’s Laurie Friedland, in straight sets during the final of the team National Collegiate Athletic Assn. women’s tennis championships Sunday. One day later, she defeated serve-and-volley artist, No. 3-seeded Ronni Reis of Miami, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, in the second round of the individual singles tournament at UCLA.

The contrast between Reis and Friedland couldn’t be more complete. Friedland’s unforced errors in a match can almost be counted on one hand. As for Reis, she can play like Navratilova for stretches. Then, there are stretches where Reis can’t win a point.

Some examples:

Against Green, Reis rallied from a 3-5 first-set deficit, winning 8 straight points and 12 of 15. In all, she won four straight games to take the set, 7-5.

Green was ahead, 5-4, in the second set but was behind, 3-0, in the game with Reis serving. Four points later, Green won the game and the set.

Green, a freshman playing No. 3 for the Cardinal, said the different styles of Friedland and Reis didn’t throw her off.

“I’ve been playing different types of players all week,” she said. “Friedland was the only baseliner. She (Friedland) played really well. But today I concentrated very well.”

After two rounds of singles, four seeded players--including two of the top four--were out of the tournament.

Fourth-seeded Sonia Hahn of Kentucky lost to Friedland, 7-6, 6-2; fifth-seeded Diane Donnelly of Northwestern was defeated by Trinity’s Elvyn Barrable, 7-5, 6-3; seventh-seeded Ingelise Driehuis of Clemson lost to Florida’s Tammy Whittington, 6-3, 6-1, and Reis, after winning her first-round match, lost to Green.

“It’s very unusual because this is a very unusual tournament,” Stanford Coach Frank Brennan said of the upsets. “It tends to happen here because it’s not an isolated event. Some players who were in the team event are ready to go in the individuals, while others are dead. Then some in the individuals who didn’t play in the team haven’t been playing matches, just working out.”

Green wasn’t the only player to benefit from Reis’ erratic play. The upset left that quarter of the draw wide open as there are no seeded players remaining.

For that reason, USIU’s Kefi Binyamini, who defeated USC’s Stephanie Harges, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round, could possibly be the surprise of the tournament. Binyamini, a junior from Israel, defeated Green, 7-5, 6-1, in April.

Two years ago, USIU Coach Dave Trebisky gave Binyamini a scholarship without having seen her play. One of his players was injured and another quit, so Trebisky needed a player. Fast.

Binyamini, though, had compiled an excellent junior career and competed internationally before serving two years in the Israeli army as a secretary.

After a second-round match, an official approached the winner:

“Can you come with me for the drug test?”

The reply: “Just wait a minute, I have to go to the bathroom.”

Notes

Defending champion and top-seeded Patty Fendick of Stanford rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the first set to defeat BYU’s Susanna Lee, 6-4, 6-0, in a second-round match. In the first round, Fendick beat Arizona’s Chris Seiffert, 6-0, 6-0.