March 11, 2005
Columbia, S.C. – The University of South Carolina women’s tennis team’s upset bid of #6 Kentucky fell short on Friday afternoon at the Maxcy Gregg Tennis Facility, 4-3. The loss dropped the Gamecocks to 6-3 overall and to 1-2 in the SEC while the Wildcats improved to 14-3 overall and to 3-0 in the conference. The loss marked Carolina’s third straight with two of the three matches being by scores of 4-3.
The Wildcats got off to an early 1-0 lead by sweeping the three doubles contest. Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk took the No. 2 doubles spot 8-1 over Carolina’s Christyn Lucas and Magda Wojdylo. The Wildcats then clinched the doubles point when Lara Maurer and Emily Foster took an 8-5 victory over Fallon Koon and Megan McGavock, 8-5. Aibika Kalsarieva and Sarah Foster finished the UK sweep in doubles by taking an 8-6 win at the top doubles flight.
In singles, the Gamecocks would rally to take the first three single matches that completed. Miranda Gutierrez defeated Joelle Schwenk at No. 4 singles, 6-4,6-1 to even the match at one. Carolina would go up 2-1 when Magda Wojdylo took a 6-4,6-1 win at five over Lara Maurer. The Gamecocks then added another point to their total to get one win shy of the upset when Laura Ganzer defeated 42nd ranked Sarah Foster in straight sets 6-0,6-2. The Wildcats would then come back to cut the deficit to 3-2 when Danielle Petrisko took a 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Fallon Koon at six. UK would then even it up at three when #33 Kim Coventry defeated Christyn Lucas 6-2,6-4. The match would then come down to the No. 1 singles match between 8th ranked Aibika Kalsarieva and Danielle Wiggins.
Wiggins took the first set 7-5 but Kalsarieva would take an early 4-1 lead in the second set. Wiggins battled back to take the next three games to even the set at four but Kalsarieva would hold on to take the second stanza and force a third and final set to decide the dual match for both teams. In the third set, Kalsarieva took the first three games to go up 3-0 and Wiggins bounced back to take the next game to cut Kalsarieva`s lead in the third set to 3-1 and the two would then split the next two games to make it 4-2. With the score 4-2, the match was moved indoors because of darkness. At the indoors, Kalsarieva would take the next two games to take the third set and the match to give #6 Kentucky a 4-3 win over the Gamecocks.
The Gamecocks travel to Vanderbilt on Sunday at 1pm for their fourth SEC match of the season. After facing the Commodores, Carolina will travel to Clemson to take on the Tigers on Wednesday at 2pm.
Final Score
#6 Kentucky (14-3, 3-0) 4
#31 South Carolina (6-3, 1-2) 3
Doubles:
1. #6 Kalsarieva/S. Foster (UK) d. Ganzer/Wiggins (SC) 8-6
2. Coventry/Schwenk (UK) d. Lucas/Wojdylo (SC) 8-1
3. Maurer/E. Foster (UK) d. Koon/McGavock(SC) 8-5
Order of Finish: 2,3,1
Singles:
1. #8 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) d. Danielle Wiggins (SC) 5-7,6-4,6-2
2. #33 Kim Coventry (UK) d. Christyn Lucas (SC) 6-2,6-4
3. Laura Ganzer (SC) d. #42 Sarah Foster (UK) 6-0,6-2
4. Miranda Gutierrez (SC) d. Joelle Schwenk (UK) 6-4,6-1
5. Magda Wojdylo (SC) d. Lara Maurer (UK) 6-4,6-1
6. Danielle Petrisko (UK) d. Fallon Koon (SC) 7-6(5),6-2
Order of Finish: 4,5,3,6,2,1
