Women's Tennis . April 22, 2021

Texas A&M Halts Gamecocks' SEC Tournament Run With 4-2 Win

South Carolina Awaits NCAA Selections Set for Monday, May 3, at 6 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The No. 26 South Carolina women’s tennis team saw its SEC Tournament run come to a halt Thursday in the semifinals at the hands of No. 12 and third-seeded Texas A&M in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

South Carolina, the tournament’s No. 7 seed, dropped to 12-11 on the season, while the Aggies improved to 19-6 and will face top-seeded and No. 2-ranked Georgia in the championship match Friday at 10 a.m. ET.

The Gamecocks will now wait to see their NCAA Tournament fate with the selection show scheduled to take place Monday, May 3, at 6 p.m. on NCAA.com.

Doubles Recap

The match opened with a hotly contested doubles point. After each court had played six games, the scores were all knotted up at 3-all.

From there, Texas A&M began to turn all three courts in its favor. At two, the Aggies’ Dorthea Faa-Hviding and Renee McBryde won three straight games to pick up a 6-3 triumph over Silvia Chinellato and Emma Shelton.

Megan Davies and Mia Horvit had a 3-1 lead on A&M’s Jayci Goldsmith and Tatiana Makarova on court No. 1 that turned into a 4-3 deficit after the next three games, but the match was still on serve. Horvit held to make it 4-all and the Aggies did likewise to pass the serve on to Davies. South Carolina had a 40-15 lead in the 10th game and was poised to send the match to 5-all, but Texas A&M claimed all three of the ensuing rallies to get a timely break for a 6-4 win and 1-0 team lead heading to singles.

Court three’s match between South Carolina’s Allie Gretkowski and Elise Mills, and Riley McQuaid and Katya Townsend of A&M was suspended with the match on serve and the Gamecocks leading 6-5. South Carolina actually trailed 5-4 before getting a break, and Mills held serve to make it 6-5 at the changeover.

Singles Recap

Texas A&M’s 1-0 advantage to begin singles play was too much for the Gamecocks to overcome. The Aggies got a pair of straight-set victories on courts three and five that pushed their lead to 3-0, and South Carolina did its best to respond afterward but came up short.

Katya Townsend got the first A&M point with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Emma Shelton at the No. 3 position to snap the sophomore’s seven-match winning streak. Renee McBryde snagged the next point by taking care of Allie Gretkowski on court five 6-4, 6-3.

Needing to win all four of the remaining courts, the Gamecocks put forth a solid effort and ended up getting the score to 3-2 with the first point coming courtesy of Mia Horvit on court one. Horvit, ranked 56th, managed to upset No. 18 Tatiana Makarova 6-4, 6-4 to give South Carolina life. Next, Silvia Chinellato recovered from a 6-0 loss in the first set to Dorthea Faa-Hviding on court four to win the second and third sets easily for a 0-6, 6-1, 6-1 final.

The Gamecocks’ hopes of a comeback rested on the shoulders of Megan Davies on court two and Elise Mills on court six. Davies won the first set of her contest with Jayci Goldsmith 6-4, but Goldsmith recovered to win the second 6-3. Mills dropped her first set to Riley McQuaid in a tiebreak 7-3.

Mills fell behind 4-1 in the second to McQuaid but fought her way back to a 4-3 deficit and nearly made the score 4-all with a break. McQuaid, though, was able to hold serve and the next game went to a winner-take-all deuce on Mills’ serve. McQuaid clinched the match after a long rally that ended with both players at the net and McQuaid putting the point away.

Davies had her match suspended in the third set with Goldsmith leading 3-2.

Notes

The Gamecocks competed in their 29th SEC Tournament and now have an all-time record of 27-28. They advanced to the semifinals of the event for the seventh time and have made the semis three of the past four tournaments.
Mia Horvit picked up her 97th career singles victory and is in sole possession of sixth place on the Gamecocks’ all-time list. Carolina Culik (1986-90) is in fifth place with 98.
Mia Horvit now has 176 combined victories in her career, giving her sole possession of sixth place on the Gamecocks’ all-time wins list. Ingrid Martins (2015-19) is in fifth place with 178.
The Gamecocks had their streak of winning six consecutive doubles points snapped. South Carolina has won the doubles point 16 times in 23 matches this season.
Texas A&M took both meetings from South Carolina this season by 4-2 scores. The Gamecocks had won four in a row over the Aggies heading into 2021 and still lead the all-time series 11-7.
South Carolina aims to make its 26th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament that is set to be announced Monday, May 3, at 6 p.m.