Jan. 15, 2005

Las Vegas, Nevada – The Gamecocks opened up the 2005 Freeman Memorial on Friday in Las Vegas, Nevada. USC is holding their own as they opened up playing some of the top individual and double teams in the country. Leading the way for Carolina is freshman Megan McGavock. McGavock, a native of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla has advanced to the quarterfinals of the flight two after posting a three set win against Jessica Shu of California. McGavock dropped the first set 6-4 but bounced back to take the final two sets 7-5,6-2 to advance. McGavock also posted a win in doubles with teammate Laura Ganzer. The pair defeated UNLV’s Gyorgyi Zsiros and Claire Smith 8-3. Ganzer posted a win in her first round match against Zsiros, 7-6,6-1 before losing to UCLA’s Riza Zalameda, 6-3,6-4. Christyn Lucas also was on the winning side with a 6-4,7-5 win over Caroline Basu of Georgia in Flight One. The Gamecocks will continue the weekend tournament today starting at 12:30 eastern. “The players who are here have really competed well,” said USC Head Coach Arlo Elkins. “There is no easy match as majority of the players here are ranked in the Top 20 of the nation. The players have worked hard in every match and I look for them to keep it up as we continue the tournament and as we prepare ourselves for the 2005 season