Women's Tennis Faces No. 2 Georgia

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M women's tennis team continues its first Southeastern Conference road swing of the season as the Aggies face No. 2 Georgia Sunday in Athens, Ga. First serve is at 12 p.m. (CT) at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

"No doubt our ladies are thoroughly excited for this match,” A&M fourth-year head coach Howard Joffe said. “Georgia has an excellent team, and I am excited to see us perform against them.”

Texas A&M improved to 3-2 overall after shutting out Tennessee, 7-0, Friday in Knoxville, Tenn., in both teams' SEC opener. Georgia is 8-3 following its conference-opening 6-1 victory over No. 45 LSU Friday in Athens.

The Aggies will be looking for their first victory in the all-time series against the Bulldogs, as Georgia has won each of the nine meetings between the two teams. A win against Georgia also would mark the highest ranked victory in Texas A&M program history, bettering the Aggies' 4-3 victory at No. 3 North Carolina last year. In the most recent meeting, the then-No. 9 Bulldogs defeated A&M, 4-0, on March 28, 2014, in Athens.

Sophomore Rachel Pierson, a transfer from the University of Virginia, leads the Aggies in both singles (14-6) and doubles (12-5) victories. She also is the Aggies' highest ranked player in both categories, as her No. 40 singles ranking tops an A&M contingent of five players listed in this week's ITA rankings. Sophomores Saska Gavrilovska and Rutuja Bhosale are Nos. 54 and 59, respectively, and juniors Stefania Hristov and Ines Deheza are ranked 113^th and 117^th, respectively.

In doubles, Pierson and Deheza are a team-high No. 29. Pierson also is ranked 35^th with Aggie lone freshman Eva Paalma.

Georgia has seven players nationally ranked in singles, including sixth-ranked senior Lauren Herring, who is 7-1 at the No. 1 singles line. Other ranked players are freshmen Hannah King (66), Kennedy Shaffer (69), Ellen Perez (74), and Mariana Gould (107), junior Silvia Garcia (97) and sophomore Caroline Brinson (111).

Garcia and Shaffer are No. 16 in doubles, and Herring and Perez are No. 25. The Bulldogs' third duo, Brinson and H. King, is ranked No. 55.

Live scoring of the A&M-Georgia match will be available at Georgiadogs.com

Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.