.
The No. 5 UGA women’s tennis team will face a battle right out of the gates as it travels to No. 15 Baylor for the start of the 2015 dual match season on Sunday.
The opening match will mark the start of head coach Jeff Wallace’s 30th season in charge of the Georgia women’s tennis program, with his 631-155 record allowing him to stand alone as the nation’s winningest active women’s tennis coach.
He returns four players from a season ago, including a pair of NCAA All-Americans in Lauren Herring and Silvia Garcia. The two are ranked No. 9 and No. 83 in singles, respectively.
Five freshmen have also arrived since last spring, with Dunwoody, Ga., native Hannah King entering the fray as the No. 91 ranked singles player in the country. Two of King’s fellow freshmen, Mariana Gould and Ellen Perez, are the nation’s No. 43 ranked doubles team.
Sunday’s match against Baylor is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. ET in the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. Live scoring can be accessed at match time by clicking here.
Scouting the Opposition:
The Bears, who will be hosting the 2015 NCAA National Championships in May, last faced the Bulldogs in a 2009 showdown that saw Georgia come away with a hard-fought, 4-3 victory in Athens. The two programs also faced-off in a 2008 meeting in Waco, with the Bears pulling out a 4-3 win of their own. The all-time series dates back to 1986 and stands at 8-2 in the Bulldogs’ favor.
In addition to its No. 15 team ranking, Baylor also boasts four singles players in the top 125 with sophomore Blair Shankle headlining the group at No. 49. For those who don’t remember, Shankle and former teammate Victoria Kisialeva fell to Herring and former Bulldog Maho Kowase in the doubles quarterfinals at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Up Next:
After the Baylor match, Georgia will return home to host the ITA Kick-Off Weekend at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex from Jan. 24-25. The Bulldogs will face Samford in their opening match at 1 p.m. on the 24th.