Friday, April 14
Knoxville, Tenn.
5:00 PM
Texas A&M
at
Tennessee
No. 21 Texas A&M Concludes Regular Season at No. 23 Tennessee, No. 2 Georgia
Apr 13, 2017 | Women's Tennis
No. 21 Texas A&M (14-11, 4-7 SEC) at. No. 23 Tennessee (16-9, 3-8 SEC)
Friday, April 14, 5 p.m. (4 p.m. ET)
Barksdale Stadium, Knoxville, Tennessee
Live Scoring: http://www.utsports.com/livestats/m-tennis/xlive.htm
No. 21 Texas A&M at No. 2 Georgia (16-3, 10-1 SEC entering Friday match vs. No. 19 LSU)
Sunday, April 16, 12 p.m. (1 p.m. ET)
Dan Magill Tennis Complex, Athens, Georgia
Live Scoring/Video: http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/vid-stream.html
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The 21st-ranked Texas A&M women's tennis team concludes the regular season this weekend, taking on No. 23 Tennessee on Friday in Knoxville and No. 2 Georgia on Sunday in Athens. First serve against the Volunteers is at 5 p.m. (6 p.m. ET) at Barksdale Stadium, and the regular-season finale against the Bulldogs begins at noon (1 p.m. ET) at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, site of this year's NCAA Championships.
"There is a lot to play for this weekend, such as how the SEC tournament shakes out with the byes and the large bracket of 14 very good teams," Texas A&M head coach Mark Weaver said. "Also with a few more good wins between this weekend and also the SEC tournament, we can put ourselves in a good position to host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, which is no doubt one of our goals each and every year."
Texas A&M (14-11, 4-7 SEC), tied for ninth and holding a one-win lead over Tennessee in the SEC standings, enters the final weekend riding a three-match win streak after upsetting No. 11 Kentucky, 4-2, and blanking Prairie View A&M in a doubleheader on Sunday to conclude the Aggies' home schedule.
"I am very pleased with how this past weekend all played out," Weaver said. "It was a difficult yet successful weekend that we pushed through, and that has set us up to go into this weekend with the right mindset. There is no doubt that we are extremely match tough at this point of the season, and overall we are about as healthy as any team could ask for considering how many battles we have had this year."
Following the successful weekend, the Aggies climbed one spot to No. 21 in the ITA team rankings, and Texas A&M seniors Rachel Pierson and Rutuja Bhosale jumped to No. 4 in the doubles rankings, setting an all-time school record-high. In addition, Pierson, named the SEC Women's Tennis Player of the Week following a career-best 6-3, 6-2 victory over then-No. 4 Astra Sharma of Vanderbilt on Friday and a 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 triumph over No. 17 Aldila Sutjiadi of Kentucky on Sunday, moved up to a season-high No. 22 in the ITA singles rankings, marking the second highest singles ranking of her career. Meanwhile, Bhosale climbed 28 spots to No. 79 in singles.
Pierson is riding a five-match win streak in singles and leads the Aggies in victories with a 24-11 overall record and a 14-8 ledger in dual matches only, all at the No. 1 line. She is 5-5 in SEC matches only, tying for the team lead.
In doubles, Pierson and Bhosale are 24-8 overall, including 13-6 in dual matches only as well as 6-3 in conference matches only. The duo of Saska Gavrilovska and Stefania Hristov sports a team-best three-match win streak, giving Hristov 91 career win and moving her into eighth place in the Texas A&M all-time records for career doubles victories.
Tennessee (16-9, 3-8 SEC), which closes out the regular season with a Sunday home match against No. 19 LSU, is coming off a 4-3 setback at No. 19 Arkansas on Sunday.
At No. 59, Brittany Lindl is the Vols' lone ranked singles player. She is 16-14 overall and has played every SEC match at the No. 1 line, where she is 3-6 in conference matches only and 5-8 overall. Eve Repic, who plays No. 2 singles, is riding a team-best three-match win streak in singles, including a straight-set victory over 77th-ranked Ana Oparenovic of Arkansas in her most recent outing.
Repic and Lindl are ranked 72nd in doubles and are 7-5 at the No. 1 line but are 0-4 in SEC matches only.
Tennessee is under the direction of first-year head coach Alison Ojeda. The San Antonio native and former Tennessee All-American served as an assistant coach at Texas A&M in 2003 and 2004 under former head coach Bobby Kleinecke and helped the Aggies to record-setting seasons. The Aggies won the Big 12 Conference regular season title in 2003 and the Big 12 Tournament championship in 2004. In addition, Ojeda was named the 2004 ITA Assistant Coach of the Year as the Aggies made their first-ever appearance in the NCAA round of 16.
No. 2 Georgia, which hosts No. 19 LSU on Friday, is in a three-way tie for first place in the SEC standings with Florida and Vanderbilt, who face off on Sunday. The Bulldogs boast five players in the national singles rankings, including freshman Eleni Christofi, who is a team-high No. 11 with a 27-4 record, including a 13-4 mark against ranked opponents and 15-1 ledger in dual matches only. She is 8-1 in SEC matches, all at the No. 2 line, and she is tied for the team lead with a seven-match winning streak.
Ellen Perez, 9-5 at the No. 1 line, is ranked 25th, and Caroline Brinson and Kennedy Shaffer, who both reached the 20-victory mark in the Bulldogs' 4-0 victory at Missouri on Sunday, are Nos. 28 and 67, respectively. Marianna Gould is No. 112.
In doubles, 11th-ranked Brinson and Perez enter the weekend 6-3 overall and in SEC matches only, all at the No. 1 line. Christofi and Shaffer are No. 29 and have won seven consecutive matches to improve to 12-2 overall, including a 7-1 in SEC matches only, all at the No. 2 line.
Texas A&M and Tennessee are tied, 6-6, in the all-time series, including 3-3 in matches played in Knoxville. The Aggies, however, are 4-0 against the Vols since joining the SEC and have not dropped a point in each of the last three meetings. Last year, Texas A&M defeated then-No. 75 Tennessee, 7-0, on April 8 in College Station.
Texas A&M is 0-12 all-time against Georgia since the series began in 1986. In the most recent meeting, A&M fell to the Bulldogs, 4-1, in the quarterfinals of the 2016 SEC Tournament.
The 2017 SEC Tournament will be April 19-23 at the April 19-23 at Vanderbilt's Brownlee O. Currey Jr., Tennis Center in Nashville.
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: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Aggie-Womens-Tennis/143874782434654
Pronunciations
Rutuja Bhosale rue-too-jah BO-slay
Tina Bokhua BO-kwah
Saska Gavrilovska SAUSH-ka gav-ril-ohv-ska
Stefania Hristov steff-on-ya RIS-tov
Eva Paalma A-va palma
Friday, April 14, 5 p.m. (4 p.m. ET)
Barksdale Stadium, Knoxville, Tennessee
Live Scoring: http://www.utsports.com/livestats/m-tennis/xlive.htm
No. 21 Texas A&M at No. 2 Georgia (16-3, 10-1 SEC entering Friday match vs. No. 19 LSU)
Sunday, April 16, 12 p.m. (1 p.m. ET)
Dan Magill Tennis Complex, Athens, Georgia
Live Scoring/Video: http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/m-tennis/spec-rel/vid-stream.html
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The 21st-ranked Texas A&M women's tennis team concludes the regular season this weekend, taking on No. 23 Tennessee on Friday in Knoxville and No. 2 Georgia on Sunday in Athens. First serve against the Volunteers is at 5 p.m. (6 p.m. ET) at Barksdale Stadium, and the regular-season finale against the Bulldogs begins at noon (1 p.m. ET) at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, site of this year's NCAA Championships.
"There is a lot to play for this weekend, such as how the SEC tournament shakes out with the byes and the large bracket of 14 very good teams," Texas A&M head coach Mark Weaver said. "Also with a few more good wins between this weekend and also the SEC tournament, we can put ourselves in a good position to host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, which is no doubt one of our goals each and every year."
Texas A&M (14-11, 4-7 SEC), tied for ninth and holding a one-win lead over Tennessee in the SEC standings, enters the final weekend riding a three-match win streak after upsetting No. 11 Kentucky, 4-2, and blanking Prairie View A&M in a doubleheader on Sunday to conclude the Aggies' home schedule.
"I am very pleased with how this past weekend all played out," Weaver said. "It was a difficult yet successful weekend that we pushed through, and that has set us up to go into this weekend with the right mindset. There is no doubt that we are extremely match tough at this point of the season, and overall we are about as healthy as any team could ask for considering how many battles we have had this year."
Following the successful weekend, the Aggies climbed one spot to No. 21 in the ITA team rankings, and Texas A&M seniors Rachel Pierson and Rutuja Bhosale jumped to No. 4 in the doubles rankings, setting an all-time school record-high. In addition, Pierson, named the SEC Women's Tennis Player of the Week following a career-best 6-3, 6-2 victory over then-No. 4 Astra Sharma of Vanderbilt on Friday and a 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 triumph over No. 17 Aldila Sutjiadi of Kentucky on Sunday, moved up to a season-high No. 22 in the ITA singles rankings, marking the second highest singles ranking of her career. Meanwhile, Bhosale climbed 28 spots to No. 79 in singles.
Pierson is riding a five-match win streak in singles and leads the Aggies in victories with a 24-11 overall record and a 14-8 ledger in dual matches only, all at the No. 1 line. She is 5-5 in SEC matches only, tying for the team lead.
In doubles, Pierson and Bhosale are 24-8 overall, including 13-6 in dual matches only as well as 6-3 in conference matches only. The duo of Saska Gavrilovska and Stefania Hristov sports a team-best three-match win streak, giving Hristov 91 career win and moving her into eighth place in the Texas A&M all-time records for career doubles victories.
Tennessee (16-9, 3-8 SEC), which closes out the regular season with a Sunday home match against No. 19 LSU, is coming off a 4-3 setback at No. 19 Arkansas on Sunday.
At No. 59, Brittany Lindl is the Vols' lone ranked singles player. She is 16-14 overall and has played every SEC match at the No. 1 line, where she is 3-6 in conference matches only and 5-8 overall. Eve Repic, who plays No. 2 singles, is riding a team-best three-match win streak in singles, including a straight-set victory over 77th-ranked Ana Oparenovic of Arkansas in her most recent outing.
Repic and Lindl are ranked 72nd in doubles and are 7-5 at the No. 1 line but are 0-4 in SEC matches only.
Tennessee is under the direction of first-year head coach Alison Ojeda. The San Antonio native and former Tennessee All-American served as an assistant coach at Texas A&M in 2003 and 2004 under former head coach Bobby Kleinecke and helped the Aggies to record-setting seasons. The Aggies won the Big 12 Conference regular season title in 2003 and the Big 12 Tournament championship in 2004. In addition, Ojeda was named the 2004 ITA Assistant Coach of the Year as the Aggies made their first-ever appearance in the NCAA round of 16.
No. 2 Georgia, which hosts No. 19 LSU on Friday, is in a three-way tie for first place in the SEC standings with Florida and Vanderbilt, who face off on Sunday. The Bulldogs boast five players in the national singles rankings, including freshman Eleni Christofi, who is a team-high No. 11 with a 27-4 record, including a 13-4 mark against ranked opponents and 15-1 ledger in dual matches only. She is 8-1 in SEC matches, all at the No. 2 line, and she is tied for the team lead with a seven-match winning streak.
Ellen Perez, 9-5 at the No. 1 line, is ranked 25th, and Caroline Brinson and Kennedy Shaffer, who both reached the 20-victory mark in the Bulldogs' 4-0 victory at Missouri on Sunday, are Nos. 28 and 67, respectively. Marianna Gould is No. 112.
In doubles, 11th-ranked Brinson and Perez enter the weekend 6-3 overall and in SEC matches only, all at the No. 1 line. Christofi and Shaffer are No. 29 and have won seven consecutive matches to improve to 12-2 overall, including a 7-1 in SEC matches only, all at the No. 2 line.
Texas A&M and Tennessee are tied, 6-6, in the all-time series, including 3-3 in matches played in Knoxville. The Aggies, however, are 4-0 against the Vols since joining the SEC and have not dropped a point in each of the last three meetings. Last year, Texas A&M defeated then-No. 75 Tennessee, 7-0, on April 8 in College Station.
Texas A&M is 0-12 all-time against Georgia since the series began in 1986. In the most recent meeting, A&M fell to the Bulldogs, 4-1, in the quarterfinals of the 2016 SEC Tournament.
The 2017 SEC Tournament will be April 19-23 at the April 19-23 at Vanderbilt's Brownlee O. Currey Jr., Tennis Center in Nashville.
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: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Aggie-Womens-Tennis/143874782434654
Pronunciations
Rutuja Bhosale rue-too-jah BO-slay
Tina Bokhua BO-kwah
Saska Gavrilovska SAUSH-ka gav-ril-ohv-ska
Stefania Hristov steff-on-ya RIS-tov
Eva Paalma A-va palma
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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