On Wednesday, the University of Georgia women’s tennis team was selected as the SEC preseason champion by the conference. The poll is voted on by all 14 coaches of each member school.

Behind the Lady Bulldogs, Florida was voted second, Vanderbilt third, and South Carolina, who were last season’s SEC Tournament Champions, was voted fourth. The Texas A&M Aggies round out the top five.

Coming off one of its best seasons during the 2018-19 campaign. The UGA women went on to win their fourth indoor title, had an undefeated regular season, including the SEC regular-season title and a trip to the NCAA National Finals where they ultimately fell short to Stanford.

“It’s exciting that the league coaches have picked us to win the conference,” Head Coach Jeff Wallace said. “At the same time, we all know there is a lot of tennis to be played and that just means that we’ve earned a big target on our back. That’s alright though. We’ve handled that well in the past and we’re looking forward to getting the season underway and certainly, we know that we have a lot of great and successful programs in the best conference, in the SEC.”

The Lady Bulldogs came in at No. 3 after being tied for second in the preseason polls in the most recent ITA rankings.
 
The UGA women’s tennis team will begin their 2019-20 season this weekend, hosting Furman, Michigan State, and Notre Dame in the ITA Kick-Off event in Athens, GA. Matches begin on Saturday, January 25th with the Bulldogs facing off against Michigan State at 2:00 p.m. ET. Notre Dame will take on Furman in the morning match starting at 10:00 a.m. ET. The consolation and championship matches will take place on Sunday, January 26th at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. ET, respectively.

Full Rankings

The preseason poll is voted on by the women’s tennis head coach at each institution and is based on a 14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 vote.

Team                                                     Points
01. Georgia                                           126                        
02. Florida                                             112
03. Vanderbilt                                        97
04. South Carolina                                93
05. Texas A&M                                      88
06. LSU                                                84
07. Tennessee                                      80
08. Ole Miss                                          60
09. Kentucky                                        43
10. Alabama                                       39
      Auburn                                         39
      Mississippi State                           39
13. Arkansas                                      28
14. Missouri                                       9