The third-ranked Georgia women’s tennis team dispatched No. 23 Tennessee, 4-0, Saturday at Barksdale Stadium.
The Bulldogs (14-3, 8-1 SEC) notched their seventh shutout of the season and their second in the last two matches. Georgia grabbed the doubles point for the eighth-straight match, which carried momentum into singles with wins by Ellen Perez, Mariana Gould and Caroline Brinson.
“I thought our doubles played really great today,” Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace said. “I think Ellen (Perez) and Caroline (Brinson) at No. 1 played their best match together. They really played great. It was nice getting that first point. Singles was tough. It was another tough, hard-fought SEC win which they all are.”
The Bulldogs streaked through doubles as Gould and partner Marta Gonzalez defeated Eve Repic and Ariadna Riley, 6-1, first on court three. Minutes later, 18th-ranked Brinson and Perez beat UT’s top tandem of Sadie Hammond and Gabby Schuck, 6-2 at No. 1.
In singles, No. 26 Perez was quick to make a 2-0 Georgia advantage on court one with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the Volunteers’ lone ranked singles player Brittany Lindl, No. 58.
Gould, ranked No. 102, claimed her sixth win in a row by besting Kim Kermet 6-4, 6-3 on court No. 6. The clinching point occurred on court four with No. 59 Brinson as she rallied to win the first-set tiebreaker then finished it off in the second, 7-6 (7-0), 6-3.
“Ellen did a great job,” Wallace added. “She didn’t break one time and she won all her service games. The rest of the matches were good, Mariana (Gould) got our third point and Caroline, who was down 5-0 in the first game, came back to win the first set then closed out the match for us.”