Congratulations go to the dynamic duo of Ani Mijacika (Fr) and Federica van Adrichem (So) who were the first tennis doubles team in school history to advance to the NCAA semifinals. As seen over at ClemsonTigers.com, they defeated a Stanford duo in two sets down in Athens to make their way into the record books. They go on to face a #1 seed William and Mary duo today. The win placed the duo at a 18-4 mark, hopefully that will get some more W’s in the near future.

It’s nice that our women’s tennis team is doing well. It’s also nice that the women’s tennis players are much nicer to look at than, say, any of the male athletes on campus. So it’s nice to know they’re coming to town.

The fifth-ranked Tiger women’s tennis team will wrap up its 2007 regular season this weekend with matches at Virginia and Virginia Tech. Clemson (17-3, 8-1 ACC) will face the Cavaliers (10-8, 4-5 ACC) at 11:00 am on Saturday at the Snyder Tennis Center in Charlottesville, VA.

Unfortunately I’ll probably miss the chance to see the team because rain is in the forecast and getting out of bed that early on a Saturday isn’t always easy.

• The baseball team had gained some momentum before the Hurricanes came to town. That momentum is now gone, as the ‘Canes took the first and the third games of the series. Sunday’s Game 3 score was 7-6.
• The 8th ranked women’s tennis team went to Chapel Hill and kicked some baby blue ass this weekend. The #13 Tar Heels lost 6-1.
• Men’s tennis, on the other hand, lost on Friday to #2 Virginia 5-2. And they also lost to Virginia Tech 4-3. The lesson to be learned is that people from Clemson just don’t belong in Virginia.
• The bad news continues on into the world of men’s golf. The team finished 10th at the Administaff ASU Invitational. Coastal was first, UNC was 2nd. USCe finished 4th. The team did finish 8 shots better than 15th place USC-Aiken.

And for the golf team alumni at the Shell Houston Open:

• Lucas Glover missed the cut.
• J. Byrd earned $66,660 by finishing tied for 19th at -8.
• Matt Hendrix had three solid and one “oh my god what happened” rounds en route to winning $34,100 and finishing at -5.
• Charles Warren fared less well, but still made the cut. He finished tied for 66th at 2 over. His check was for $11,300.
• Finally, DJ Trahan finished all alone in the 8th spot. He was 10-under for the weekend and 11-under for the tournament. That performance was worth $170,500.

It may be worth noting that the 5 golfers above combined to win $282,500. I’m fairly certain they won more in a weekend that all the Gnomes make combined in a year. Which all goes to show that the time spent in the classroom would have been better spent harassing the cart girl.

• The women’s tennis team is doing a good job of avoiding the rankings curse that befell the football and basketball teams. They are currently eighth in the Fila/ITA Tennis poll; they’ve stayed in the top 10 for 4 straight weeks. They have six remaining league matchups before the ACC Championships begin April 19th.
• Justin Miller showed some of the basketball players around New York City. Miller is close friends with Vernon Hamilton. Players also went to a Brazilian restaurant, which was recommended by Oliver Purnell’s daughter, Olivia. Yes. Oliver named daughter Olivia. Not cool. Although the name Olivia is not as bad as some of the names in my family tree; I recall seeing the name Jacobina.
• Speaking of the basketball team, they beat Air Force by a point to move on to the NIT finals. More on that later.
• Gardner-Webb gave little resistance to the baseball team last night. The Tigers blitzkrieged the Bulldog defenses en route to a decisive 14-2 win.
• “Clemson’s sixth-ranked men’s golf team will be back in action for the first time in 19 days when the Tigers start action Friday at the Administaff Augusta State Invitational in Augusta, GA. The Tigers are one of 18 teams who will compete for the title on the par 72 Champions Retreat Course that is 7,265 yards in length.”