Eye on the U

Hurricanes' women's tennis continues to flourish as coaches, freshman win ITA awards

The UM women's tennis team, ranked sixth in the nation, will meet No. 11 Northwestern at 6 p.m. Friday in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA National Championships in Urbana, Ill.

It's the eighth consecutive season that the Canes have advanced to the Round of 16.

On Tuesday, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its regional award winners, and UM coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews -- already inducted into the UM Sports Hall of Fame -- earned Coach of the Year for the Southeast Region.

Hurricanes assistant Alex Santos earned Assistant Coach of the Year for the Southeast Region.

And freshman Stephanie Wagner, UM's No. 1 player, earned Rookie of the Year.

All three will be eligible for the same awards on the national level.

Yaroshuk-Tews' teams are always top-notch, and this one is no different. What's especially gratifying is that all eight players will return next season.

"If we don't get to the final 16 I'm not happy,'' Yaroshuk-Tews said Tuesday. "I make that known with my staff. ...To get to the Sweet 16 is tough and it's grueling, but with this talent, this is where they should be.''

The coach said her players' goal at the beginning of the season was to get at least to the semifinal of this year's nationals. Last year they lost to Florida in the quarters.

SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN

 

 

Gameday blog: UM at Duke

The Canes (6-5, 4-3 ACC) are playing their final game of the season at Duke (6-5, 3-4 ACC).

Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m. and the game can be seen on the ACC Network. Locally, that's Channel 4.

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NEWS: #UM #Canes LB & second-leading tackler Eddie Johnson not at Duke game -- UM's final game of season

Here we go again.

Hurricanes linebacker and second-leading tackler Eddie Johnson is not on the travel roster for today's game at Duke -- the final University of Miami football game of the season.

Johnson has violated team rules, said UM athletics director of communications Chris Yandle.

Johnson, a 6-1, 234-pound redshirt freshman outside linebacker who won two Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week Awards this season (as linebacker of the week and rookie of the week), did not travel to the Virginia game two weeks ago because of disciplinary reasons.

He was reinstated for the USF game last weekend.

On this week's depth chart, Johnson was listed as the backup to sophomore Thurston Armbrister.

"There's a responsibility and level of accountability that we can't move on without, " UM Coach Al Golden said after he announced Johnson's reinstatement the week of the USF game. "It's not, 'Do this for me.' It's, 'Do it because the rest of the team is doing it and because you want to be accountable and you want to be responsible and you want to be a good teammate.'

"Hopefully, he'll come out of it stronger and respond. I've been in situations where two or three years down the road you look back and say, 'That was a moment that I finally realized what I'm giving up or what I'm costing the team.' As a coach, you can't look the other way."

Chatter about Johnson started trickling down on the Internet yesterday.

He has 59 tackles (7.5 tackles-for-loss), a sack, interception, two pass breakups, one quarterback hurry and three forced fumbles in 10 games. He has started eight games.

SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN