BATON ROUGE, La. – Starting Southeastern Conference play with a shutout, the 10th-ranked Georgia women’s tennis team breezed past No. 43 LSU, 4-0, Friday at the LSU Tennis Complex.
The Bulldogs (6-2, 1-0) earned the doubles point for the seventh time this season, prior to straight set wins from senior Mariana Gould and freshmen Annette Goulak and Katarina Jokic to seal the win. The Tigers dropped to 9-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
“It is always good to get a road win in this conference,” Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace said. “Our players played well today and it was a good match. (In doubles) I thought we played well at No. 1 and we handled No. 3, as we should have. We struggled at No. 2, however, those two players came back out and did well in singles. First off the court in singles was Gould and Jokic clinched it at the end.”
In doubles, Kennedy Shaffer and Goulak blanked LSU’s Luba Vasilyuk and Ashton Rabalais, 6-0, on court three. After Jokic and Gould lost their first match of the dual season, Georgia’s 11th-ranked duo of Elena Christofi and Morgan Coppoc clinched the doubles point with a 6-2 win over Ryann Foster and Kennan Johnson on court one.
With the 1-0 edge, Georgia took five of six first sets in singles to take full control of the match. Gould, ranked No. 96 in ITA singles, completed her match first on court four, blowing away LSU junior Kennan Johnson, 6-1, 6-0. It marked the senior’s fifth-straight singles win.
Identically score-wise, Goulak defeated Tigers’ freshman Ashton Rabalais on court six shortly after for the 3-0 lead.
The clinch occurred on court one as sixth-ranked Jokic finished off No. 102 Foster, 6-1, 6-2. The victory represented Jokic’s tenth against nationally ranked players.
At the time of clinch, Christofi was leading 6-2, 5-3 on court three and freshman Vivian Wolff, who made her dual season debut, was heading into a third set.
The Bulldogs continue their road weekend play with a match against Texas A&M Sunday at noon in College Station, Texas.
Box Score
#10 Georgia 4, #43 LSU 0
Singles
- #6 Katarina Jokic (UGA) def. #102 Ryann Foster (LSU) 6-1, 6-2
- #80 Jessica Golovin (LSU) vs. #53 Kennedy Shaffer (UGA) 6-4, 4-4, unfinished
- #105 Eden Richardson (LSU) vs. Elena Christofi (UGA) 2-6, 3-5, unfinished
- #96 Mariana Gould (UGA) def. Kennan Johnson (LSU) 6-1, 6-0
- Luba Vasilyuk (LSU) vs. Vivian Wolff (UGA) 2-6, 6-4, unfinished
- Annette Goulak (UGA) def. Ashton Rabalais (LSU) 6-1, 6-0
Doubles
- #11 Morgan Coppoc/Elena Christofi (UGA) def. Ryann Foster/Kennan Johnson (LSU) 6-2
- Eden Richardson/Jessica Golovin (LSU) def. #8 Katarina Jokic/Mariana Gould (UGA) 6-1
- Kennedy Shaffer/Annette Goulak (UGA) def. Luba Vasilyuk/Ashton Rabalais (LSU) 6-0
Match Notes:
Georgia 6-2
LSU 9-2
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (4,6,1)