May 29, 2006
NCAA Women's Singles Championship
May 29, 2006 * Stanford, CA
Finals
NCAA Singles Champion Suzi Babos, California
"I'm still in shock I can't believe I won. This was a big surprise. I need time to know exactly what happened. Right after the All-American tournament in October, I tore two ligaments in my right ankle so I couldn't play for a couple of months. I started coming back in January, but it wasn't functioning 100 percent so I was really struggling with it until March. My confidence was really, really low. I didn't believe I could come back and play at the level I wanted to play ever again. I just had to work extremely hard."
"It's just a huge being here in this tournament. I had a couple of good matches this semester, but also some bad matches. After our team lost in the NCAA Regionals to Fresno State, I felt really awful. I felt like I didn't deserve to be in this singles championships. Once I was here, I just got carried away with everything that was going on. Finally, everything clicked this weekend. I never stopped doubting that I could do really well here."
"Last year I went to Gerogia and said "I have a shot. I can win this tournament." This year, I wasn't expecting anything. I just wanted to enjoy it and take it match by match. I never even thought about playing the next round. Last year, I was focusing on winning. This year, I was just focusing on enjoying my game and improving point by point."
"[Lindsey] was a big hitter, which I like. I just wanted to make her move and touch every single ball. Once we started playing, I realized if my serve was on, and it was on fire today, then there was no way I could lose this match. Coming into the match, I was extremely nervous warming up. As soon as I stepped on the court, I said there's no way I'm losing this match because I'm nervous."
NCAA Singles Runner-Up Lindsey Nelson, USC
"It's disappointing, but it's been a great run and a great week and I'm looking forward to the summer and all it has to offer me. This was a great experience and a great week. I'm very proud of myself."
"It's just been such an emotional roller coaster and today I was just so nervous and so excited. She played a really great match and she hit a really great ball, and I just couldn't get back in there. I froze up and I didn't play as well as I'd liked to. I wish I could play it over again right now. I wish I could. I could play every point over again in my head, but that's just the way it goes. It was a bad day, but I'm very proud of myself."
"I've had a really rough year. I would have never thought that I'd be here right now. It's just very exciting to know that after an injury and illness and all the emotions running through my head and the doubt, that I could succeed and get them out of my head and remember that I'm a great athlete and that I have a lot to offer this game."
"[Suzi] served amazing and she's a strong lefty and she hardly missed and she pulled out really great shots at the right time that were amazing. She's a great player."
"I hadn't played a lefty all week, so it was different today than any of my other matches. She had a different spin than I was used to and I wasn't prepared for it as well as I would have liked to be. But next time, I'll be ready."
NCAA Women's Doubles Championship
May 29, 2006 * Stanford, CA
Finals
NCAA Doubles Champions Cristelle Grier & Alexis Prousis, Northwestern
Prousis - "This is my first NCAAs for singles and doubles, so I'm just happy to be here. Obviously, [our coaches] tell us to take it one match at a time, and that's what we did. In our first match, we could have lost. After that, we've had our heads on straight and knew that we just had to keep focused. We were up for this final and it was so exciting."
"Even this last week in the doubles tournament, we've gotten so much better. It's just awesome, to get better at a tournament. And we got better from each match on, which is exciting."
Grier - "This whole season, Prousis and I have played unbelievably well together. We've really stepped up and played some great matches. I think this tournament we got some revenge on people we'd lost to. So that's really satisfying. We know when we're playing well together that we're pretty unstoppable, which we showed this week."
NCAA Doubles Runners-Up Lucia Sainz & Katharina Winterhalter, Fresno State
Winterhalter - "I think it was a good match, we came up short. They had a high percentage on serves and returns. I think we returned well. It was a couple points here and there. One break in the first set and we just couldn't get that one point to break them back."
"We definitely met and exceeded our expectations. We came in here knowing that we can play as well as anyone in the country, but we didn't want put the pressure put on us, we wanted to come out and go after them. That helps our game. I'm very happy to end my senior year this way. Of course, a win would have been absolutely amazing, but this is just as great."