Georgia’s Elena Christofi during the Bulldogs’ match with Kentucky in Henry Feild Stadium in Athens, Ga., on Friday, March 3, 2017. (Photo by Steven Colquitt)
Elena Christofi of the University of Georgia women’s tennis team received her second Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week honor of the season Wednesday as announced by the league office.
The Athens, Greece native went 2-0 in singles and doubles on court two to help pace the third-ranked Bulldogs (13-2, 7-1 SEC) to their sixth straight conference victory. Christofi’s singles match clinched the win against No. 28 Ole Miss on Friday, while she and partner Kennedy Shaffer clinched the doubles point versus the Rebels and Sunday’s match with No. 25 Mississippi St.
Christofi checks in at No. 8 in ITA’s Singles Rankings, the second highest among freshman in the nation. The 5-10 right-hander defeated 82nd-ranked Natalie Suk of the Rebels to push her record against ranked opponents to 10-4. The third-set win over Lisa Marie Rioux of MSU clinched Georgia’s 4-0 win, the Bulldogs’ sixth shutout of the year. The freshman flaunts a 7-1 record at the No. 2 singles position, which is the best in the conference.
In the Bulldogs’ seven-match doubles winning streak, the 28th-ranked duo of Christofi/Shaffer have clinched the point in the last six and upped their SEC-best record to 6-1 at No. 2 doubles. This past weekend the deciding match for the doubles points fell on court two as both teams split the other courts.
Christofi’s first SEC Freshman of the Week award came two weeks ago for the week of March 13th-19th.