The Georgia women’s tennis team (6-3) achieved its highest rank of the 2014-15 season on Tuesday after the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) placed the Bulldogs at No. 3 in the latest batch of national rankings.
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Georgia rose six spots since the last rankings were released on Jan. 28, due largely to their impressive run of form at the 2015 ITA National Team Indoor Championships this past weekend. The Bulldogs defeated No. 15 Michigan, No. 1 UCLA, and No. 5 California en-route to a finals showdown with No. 3 UNC, which they lost 4-1.
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Unsurprisingly, indoor champion UNC has moved to No. 1 in the rankings while familiar SEC foe Florida is No. 2. The Bulldogs are trailed immediately by UCLA (4) and California (5), two teams they beat over the weekend.
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Through nine matches this season, Georgia has played against seven of the 15 teams currently ranked in the ITA’s top 15 and posted a winning, 4-3 record in those matches.
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The ITA’s release also marked the first individual singles and doubles rankings published since January 6, and featured a host of Bulldogs who have moved into the nation’s top 125.
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Georgia senior Lauren Herring, who beat former No. 1 Julia Elbaba of Virginia last week, headlines the group with a singles ranking of No. 12, while freshman Hannah King finds herself all the way at No. 39 following her back-to-back, match-clinching performances at the ITA Indoors. Georgia’s presence in the singles rankings is then rounded out by freshmen Kennedy Shaffer (52) and Ellen Perez (74), junior Silvia Garcia (88), and sophomore Caroline Brinson (103) to give the Bulldogs a ranked representative at every singles court.
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In doubles, Garcia and Shaffer and their near-perfect 6-1 record find themselves deservedly ranked at No. 13, while Herring and Perez are not far behind at No. 22. The former duo is 3-0 against ranked opponents this spring and claimed the scalps of both the No. 11 and No. 9 ranked doubles teams last week. Herring and Perez have a win against the former No. 3 ranked tandem to their name.
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The Bulldogs will now receive a brief break from the action as they prepare to host No. 19 Georgia Tech at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 4 p.m.
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Women’s Top 10
1. UNC
2. Florida
3. Georgia
4. UCLA
5. California
6. Baylor
7. Virginia
8. Alabama
9. Miami (FL)
10. Stanford’s