Georgia’s Laura Patterson (left) and Mariana Gould in the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., on Friday, Oct. 23, 2015. (Photo by Steven Colquitt)
The seventh-ranked Georgia women’s tennis team (6-1) is primed to start SEC play this weekend with road matches against the two Mississippi schools, facing No. 26 Ole Miss (7-0) on Friday at 3 p.m. and No. 25 Mississippi State (9-1) on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Georgia will look to build on its strong history against the two schools from the Magnolia State, with the Bulldogs entering this weekend’s action with a combined 75-8 record against the two schools including an unblemished 38-0 mark against Mississippi State.
“It’s going to be a great two matches,” said Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace. “Ole Miss is having a great year, as is Mississippi State. The SEC this year is going to be really a lot of fun for everybody because it’s as strong as I’ve seen it in 31 years, which is pretty cool. We’re on the road this first weekend (of conference play) and hopefully we’ll be road dogs and go over there and get some wins.”
The Bulldogs have not played since defeating in-state rival Georgia Tech 4-1 on Feb. 20 in Atlanta, though they slipped two spots in the ITA rankings. Despite falling out of the top five, Georgia is one of only two teams to hold two victories against current top-five opponents. UGA defeated No. 5 Texas Tech 4-0 and No. 4 Michigan 4-1 on consecutive days at the ITA Indoor Championship. The only other team in the country with multiple wins against the current top five is No. 2 California.
Two Bulldogs carry undefeated singles records into this weekend’s action, with sophomores No. 98 Kennedy Shaffer (7-0) and Mariana Gould (4-0) trying to stay unbeaten at the start of conference play. Shaffer is the only Georgia player with wins in all seven dual matches this season.
For the first time this year, Georgia is the highest-ranked SEC team in the ITA poll as it has overtaken Vanderbilt and Florida for the top spot among Southeastern Conference competition.
“We’ve been doing really well,” said sophomore Ellen Perez. “We’ve always considered ourselves one of the teams to beat, so I knew we had the potential. It’s just going out there and believing it in practice and working on fine-tuning a couple of things. I think we have the ability to go really well this season.”
Be sure to follow the action and stay current with Georgia women’s tennis by following the team on Twitter (@UGAWomensTennis), Instagram (@ugawomenstennis) and on Facebook (Georgia Women’s Tennis), and keep checking in to georgiadogs.com.