Miami Hurricanes women’s tennis star wins singles national championship

Call it Deja U .

On Saturday, Miami Hurricanes star Alexa Noel defeated a University of Georgia player to win the NCAA women’s tennis national championship.

Five years ago on the same exact month and day – May 25 – Miami’s Estela Perez-Somarriba defeated a University of Georgia player to win the NCAA women’s tennis national championship.

Noel is the third Hurricanes player to win the top trophy in college tennis, joining Perez Somarriba (2019) and Audra Cohen (2007).

All three champs were coached by Miami’s Paige Yaroshuk-Tews.

“Relentless competitors,” Yarowhuk-Tews said when asked to compare the three. “They pay attention to details.”

Noel, a 21-year-old who spent her first two years of college tennis at Iowa before playing two years at Miami, defeated Georgia’s Anastasiia Lopata, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, on Saturday afternoon in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

“It was a little bit of relief,” Noel said when asked for her reaction to winning the title. “This is something I’ve wanted for four years. It’s exciting to get it done after working and training so hard.”

Noel, who started playing tennis at the age of six, was born in Phoenix. Her family moved to the Toronto area a few years later and then to New Jersey when she was nine. When she was 15, Noel trained in the Boca Raton area before heading off to Iowa.

While there, she met women’s basketball sensation Caitlin Clark.

“I was friends with her,” Noel said. “The tennis and basketball teams would lift weights at similar times, and we had some funny banter.

“She’s awesome – a great person.”

Yaroshuk-Tews believes Noel is pretty awesome, too, especially when it comes to overcoming obstacles.

Prior to this season, Noel had never gotten past the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

As a freshman at Iowa, she broke her right ankle while sliding on the court in the second round of the tournament.

After redshirting her sophomore year, she transferred to Miami.

“She made it clear in the recruiting process,” Yaroshuk-Tews said, “that the reason she was coming to Miami was to win a national title.”

Mission accomplished.

Noel won six straight matches in Stillwater, but it didn’t start out so great.

Noel, who entered this tournament ranked 10 ^th in the nation, won her round-of-64 match, 6-2, 7-5, over 42 ^nd -ranked Tanya Sasnouskaya of Texas.

In the round of 32, Noel beat Southern Cal’s Grace Piper, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Piper is ranked 60 ^th .

“I knew Alexa had (championship tennis) in her,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “But until the third set (against Piper), she was playing ugly tennis.

“She wasn’t playing free. She wasn’t striking the ball well. She wasn’t playing to win.

“Alexa has to play with fire and emotion. From the first point of the third set, she finally came out of the gates like a lion.

“From there, she played with confidence.”

Noel admits she started the tournament “searching for perfection” and being overly self-critical.

“I was letting the pressure and the expectations get to me,” she said. “But I decided to make a change and trusted my tennis.”

Noel won her next two matches in straight sets, hammering North Carolina’s Anika Yarlagadda, 6-1, 6-2; and beating Stanford’s Alexandra Yepifanova, 6-2, 6-3. Those opponents are ranked 31 and 29, respectively.

The big step was in the semifinals, where Noel knocked off the No. 1 player in the nation, Texas A&M’s Mary Stoiana, 6-3, 6-2.

It helped that Noel had played Stoiana twice this school year, splitting the matches.

“It’s hard to play her,” Noel said of Stoiana, “if you don’t know her patterns.”

Yaroshuk-Tews was impressed with Noel’s win over Stoiana.

“Alexa played close to perfect tennis,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “Stoiana makes you work so hard to win points, but Alexa remained poised.”

In Saturday’s championship match, Noel was down a set for the first time in this tournament. She also trailed 3-1 in the second.

“I was mad and confused,” said Noel, who earlier this month graduated from Miami with a major in Sociology and a minor in Sports Administration. “I knew I had to do better.”

Yaroshuk-Tews said Georgia’s Lopata, ranked 70 ^th in the nation, has a way of opening the court and using angles to her advantage.

“It wasn’t looking good for a while,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “I told Alexa at the changeover, ‘If your intention is to grind, you will lose. You have to be brave and move forward.’

“I told her to do what we work on in practice – finish points in four shots or less.”

The plan worked, and the Hurricanes had their third national champ and their second in five years.

Noel said she hasn’t decided on whether to turn pro now or come back and play one more year of college tennis while working on her Master’s degree.

But one thing is for certain: Her decision to come to Miami worked perfectly.

“She’s a tough kid, and I’m a tough coach,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “We both felt that her coming to ‘The U’ was a good fit.”

Deja U all over again.