The fourth-ranked UGA women’s tennis team (15-2, 8-1) is set to hit the road to for contests at No. 16 LSU on Friday and at No. 18 Texas A&M Sunday to conclude the 2016 regular season road schedule.
Friday’s match is slated for 4 p.m. while Sunday’s will start at noon.
Georgia enters play this weekend fresh of a pair of sweeps at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, besting Tennessee and Missouri by identical 4-0 scores. The Bulldogs are one game back of SEC-leading Florida but lead all SEC teams in the ITA rankings.
“Everybody in the SEC can play, we know that,” said Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace. “You go on the road and everybody takes pride in playing at home. For us, it’s an opportunity to be road dogs and to get into Baton Rouge and College Station and to continue to try to strive for excellence and play high-level tennis.”
Georgia holds an all-time mark of 40-4 against LSU and is a perfect 10-0 against the Aggies. Friday’s match against LSU should feature a ranked rematch from the fall on the top singles court, as sixth-ranked Ellen Perez defeated the Tigers’ Joana Vale Costa (ranked 20th) in three sets in October.
Three Bulldogs are undefeated in SEC play, spearheaded by Perez on the top singles court. Mariana Gould, who is 9-0 overall on the season, is a fifth-court mainstay while Laura Patterson has been downright dominant in conference play while flaunting seven wins in her last nine matches (the remaining two went unfinished).
Perez was joined by fellow sophomore Kennedy Shaffer in claiming their highest respective ranks of the spring in the latest ITA poll, with the Rossford, Ohio native Shaffer climbing to 51. Caroline Brinson remained 27th while Silvia Garcia rounded out the ranked Bulldogs at 92.
The Bulldogs also boast two ranked doubles pairs, with the top-court pairing reaching its best ranking since January at No. 23. The pair of Garcia and Shaffer, ranked 80th, got its first action last weekend but was not credited with a decision as both matches went unfinished.
Georgia will return home next week to host rival Florida on Friday before taking on South Carolina to round out the regular season on Sunday.
For all the latest on Georgia women’s tennis, follow the team on Twitter (@UGAWomensTennis),Instagram (@ugawomenstennis) and on Facebook (Georgia Women’s Tennis), and keep checking in to georgiadogs.com.