May 1, 2007
DALLAS -- Rice freshman Julie Chao was named the Conference USA women's tennis freshman of the year and earned a spot on the all-conference singles first team, while junior Tiffany Lee earned a spot on the singles third team, the league office announced Tuesday.
A true freshman from San Diego, Calif., Chao finished her first dual season with an 11-10 singles mark, going 10-8 at No. 1. She faced off against seven ranked opponents in her first campaign, upsetting then No. 43 Daria Petrovic of North Carolina State 6-3, 6-2. Chao went the distance in losses to then No. 2 Megan Falcon of LSU, falling 6-7 (4), 6-1, 1-0 (5), and then No. 56 Sylvia Kosakowski of Pepperdine, falling 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10). In her final match of the season, she was leading Marshall's No. 79 Kellie Schmitt 7-5, 4-6, 5-2 in the C-USA semifinals when match was suspended.
For Lee, a native of Cupertino, Calif., the third-team honor marked her second-straight season to be honored by the C-USA coaches. This year, Lee was 10-13 in duals after going 8-7 in the fall, and she went 7-9 at No. 3 and 2-2 at No. 2. Lee won three of her last four matches to end the year, including a second-set rally to sweep Marshall's Yulia Kashelkina 6-3, 7-6 (4)
