May 21, 2002

After a rain delay postponed the first round of Monday’s NCAA Singles Tennis Championships in Palo Alto, California, South Carolina senior Katarina Markovski upset the two-seed Kelly McCain in first-round play, 6-1, 5-7, 7-5, to advance to the round of 32.

Markovski (17-17) will now face either Manon Kruse (Middle Tennessee State) or Chloe Carlotti (Fresno State) Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 PST.

One of the first matches of the day Monday, Markovski captured the first set, 6-1, and lost the first game of the second set (0-1) before the rain began. After three hours and 14 minutes of rain, the Markovski-McCain match and the remainder of the day’s matches were postponed until Tuesday.

Markovski returned on Tuesday morning to deliver the knockout blow to the Tournament’s second seed.

The victory was Markovski’s career best over a ranked opponent after a sophomore year victory over a number five seed in regular season play.

“I think that my experience helped me out very much today,” said Markovski. “I was down at times but able to come back. I just told myself to play like it was my last match.”

In other singles action, South Carolina senior Jennifer Radman fell to Arizona State’s Adria Engel, 6-3, 6-2.

The doubles team of Jennifer Radman and Kathy Boyanovich take to the courts Wednesday to face Georgia’s duo of Agata Cioroch and Lori Grey. Neither doubles is seeded in the NCAA Doubles Tennis Championships but teams are ranked as Georgia’s team is #15 and USC is ranked at #18. In April, Radman and Boyanovich defeated Georgia, 8-5 in the SEC Tournament semi-finals.