The Georgia women’s tennis team held back the Crimson Tide on Friday night with gusto, defeating Alabama 6-1 in Tuscaloosa at the Alabama Tennis Stadium.

 
 
The No. 13 Georgia women’s tennis team improved to 8-3 on the season and 2-1 in the Southeastern Conference. For the second match in a row, the Bulldogs took the doubles point to head into singles with a 1-0 edge.
 
 
“Every singles match today was tight other than Caroline’s (Brinson) match, Caroline won easy,” Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace said. “Everybody else was in a hard fought battle all the way until the end. We found ways to win almost all of them. The only one we lost, we had a match point in so I thought the team did a great job today. We just talked about staying out there and finding ways to win. It’s the SEC and every match is going to be a great battle.”
 
 
At No. 4, senior Caroline Brinson cruised past her opponent, Smith Hinton, 6-2, 6-1 to give Georgia its first singles victory and a 2-0 lead.
 
 
The other five singles matches needed a third set to determine the winner. On the front court, Crimson Tides’ top-ranked singles player Erin Routliffe, No. 59, edged Ellen Perez, ranked 55th, 5-7, 6-2, 5-7 to make it 2-1.
 
 
Next, freshman Marta Gonzalez moved past AU frosh Maddie Pothoff 3-6,6-3, 6-4 at No. 5. Then, freshman Elena Christofi clinched the Bulldogs’ victory in the third-set tiebreaker 8-6 over Andie Daniell (#124) on the second court. Christofi, ranked 18th in ITA singles, improved to a team-best 21-4 overall and is 9-1 in duals.
 
 
Georgia’s Kennedy Shaffer (#63) and Mariana Gould finished off their opponents on courts three and six, respectfully to wrap up the match.
 
 
In doubles, Gonzalez and Gould finished first with a 6-2 defeat over Joanna Savva and Daniell on court three. Shortly after on the first court, Alabama’s No. 25 ranked duo of Pothoff/Routliffe moved past Brinson and Perez 6-2. In the deciding No. 2 court, Christofi and Shaffer pulled away to a 6-3 victory over Hinton and Spielmann after the match was notched at 3-all.
 
 
“I thought we played some really good doubles again today,” Wallace added. “Even on court one in the loss, we had chances but lost some close games. The doubles were quite solid and it gave us momentum going into singles.”
 
 
Georgia continues its weekend play with a 2:00 p.m. Sunday match against No. 4 Auburn in Auburn, Alabama.