NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament : Cioffi, Stafford Make Up for Team Final With All-Florida Singles Final

Florida Coach Andy Brandi knows where he’ll be sitting once the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. women’s singles final begins today at UCLA’s L.A. Tennis Center.

“I’ll head for the 63rd row,” he said. “And hopefully have a few beers and enjoy a good match.”

For Brandi, the hard part of the job ended Wednesday when his No. 1 player, Halle Cioffi, beat Lisa Green of Stanford, 6-0, 6-3, in the semifinals, and two courts away, his No. 2 player, Shaun Stafford defeated top-seeded Ronni Reis of Miami, 6-1, 7-6.

So, it’s an all-Florida singles final today at 5 p.m. This is a first in singles since the NCAA women’s event began in 1982. And if Brandi had his way, there would be another first.

“I hope they both win,” he said.

Brandi had wanted the tournament to end on a positive note for both players because of last week’s team tournament. Cioffi and Stafford faltered in their singles matches against Stanford in the team final as the Cardinal won, 5-2.

But Stafford got a measure of revenge Tuesday when she defeated Teri Whitlinger, who had beaten her in the team final. Wednesday, Cioffi gave Green little chance to pull off a second straight victory over her. Or actually, Green took care of that herself.

“I was so excited to play her again,” said Cioffi, who is seeded third. “If you worry that you’re going to lose, then you’ll lose.”

Cioffi was so worried, she:

--Won the first nine games of the match, taking a 6-0, 3-0 lead before Green stopped the streak.

--Dropped only three points in the final two games of the match after Green had cut the second-set deficit to 4-3.

“I was just really slow getting started,” Green said. “I wasn’t into it at all in the beginning. And after losing the first nine games, it’s almost impossible to come back. . . . All she basically had to do was keep hitting the ball in the court. She didn’t have to raise her level.”

Neither did Stafford, for that matter. Reis came out flat and never felt as though she had a chance until the second-set tiebreaker. Reis and Stafford then both played nervously, with more unforced errors than winners, and Stafford took the tiebreaker, 7-5.

“She was hitting very hard and deep, and I didn’t come in,” said Reis, a left-hander noted for her serve-and-volley game. “I was just on my back foot the whole time and I didn’t get enough first serves in. And when I did, they were by me before I ever moved.”

Brandi said Stafford and Cioffi wanted to make up for their performances in the team final.

“When we lost in the team final, people thought it was a fluke that Florida was seeded No. 1,” said Stafford, who is seeded No. 4 in singles this year and was a finalist in 1987. “It’s like, ‘Keep dreaming, Florida.’ Then we turn around and have our No. 1 and No. 2 players in the final. It just shows that we have a great team.”

Brandi pointed out how Cioffi had turned her game around.

“Halle had a little difficulty dealing with the team concept as far as putting a lot of pressure on herself (goes),” he said. “I thought if I could get her relaxed, she’d be able to come through. But she never relaxed (in the team event).”

Cioffi, ranked 36th in the world, has played Stafford only three times in tournaments but many times in practice. According to Cioffi, she always wins the official challenge matches. Stafford did beat Cioffi in the U.S. Open junior event last fall, before Cioffi made her move into the world’s top 50.

But the U.S. Open victory wasn’t Stafford’s most memorable match against Cioffi. Their match in the 14-and-under division of the clay court nationals comes to Stafford’s mind.

“That’s the one that stands out,” Stafford said. “I started hyperventilating in that match. I was freaking out. She didn’t know what was going on, and neither did I. Then I had to go breathe in a paper bag.”

So, despite being the underdog, Stafford can look at today’s match with the perspective of having suffered through something worse than a loss to Cioffi.

Tennis Notes

Stanford placed five players on the United States Tennis Assn.’s national team. The Cardinal members are Sandra Birch, Lisa Green, Eleni Rossides and Tami and Teri Whitlinger. Also named were Florida’s Nicole Arendt and Shaun Stafford, USC’s Trisha Laux, Southern Methodist’s Jennifer Santrock, Pepperdine’s Ginger Helgeson, Kentucky’s Sonia Hahn and UCLA’s Jessica Emmons. As members of this team, the players will travel this summer with USTA coaches to selected events.