Congratulations Brienne Minor- NCAA Champion

Women’s singles: ‘Hey, just have fun and relax’

At the conclusion of Brienne Minor’s 6-3, 6-3 victory over Florida’s Belinda Woolcock, Minor let her racquet fly, partially in celebration and partially in exhaustion.

“It feels amazing; I’m still soaking it all in,” said Minor. “When I threw my racquet at the end of the match I just felt this wave of relief because I was just so happy I could get that win. I was super-tired, so I was excited to let that racquet go and just be done with the match.”

Squaring off against the No. 6 seed in the singles bracket, Minor – who was ranked No. 27 – collected six breaks in her two sets, including a break of Woolcock’s serve to claim the victory.

“I didn’t think I was going to win on that break, but I was really tired so I was thinking this was one I needed to get,” said Minor, who defeated No. 1 Francesca Di Lorenzo of Ohio State in the opening round of singles.

Woolcock, who was named the most valuable player of the team championships and was the first Florida player to reach the singles finals in 15 years, seemed to be off her game after Sunday’s three-set semifinal victory over Miami’s Estela Perez-Somarriba. She fell behind 4-0 in the first set, and after breaking Minor to make it 1-1 in the second set, never really threatened the rest of the way.

Minor, meantime, said that she was much more at ease in the singles tournament than she was in the team tournament, where Michigan was ousted in the first round by Stanford.

“It changes because my nerves kind of went away in the individuals,” she said. “I get more nervous in the team competition, but when I got into individuals I was like, ‘Hey, just have fun and relax.’”

Excepted from https://www.usta.com/en/home/stay-current/national/kwiatkowski–minor-win-ncaas-on-a-day-of-firsts.html?site_refer=SOC_FB_USTA_20170601