Jan. 28, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The No. 16-ranked South Carolina women’s tennis team is set to face No. 19 Michigan in Fayetteville, Ark., on Friday at noon ET in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.

Both teams are coming off victories in their season-openers. The Gamecocks were 6-1 winners against Furman on Tuesday, while the Wolverines blanked an in-state opponent of their own in Western Michigan on Sunday.

The Gamecocks won the top two positions in doubles against Furman while losing court three in taking the doubles point. Ana Marija Zubori, Dijana Stojic, Anya Morgina, Miljana Jocic and Adriana Pereira all won their singles matches in straight sets. Josefin Andersson suffered the Gamecocks’ one loss in singles in a third-set tiebreaker at the No. 4 slot.

Michigan rolled past Western Michigan in its first match. The Wolverines won all six singles in straight sets and won the three doubles matches 8-4, 8-0 and 8-3. UM is led by junior Denise Muresan who is currently ranked No. 36 in the nation. Muresan faced off against Zubori, who ranked 38th, last fall in the finals of the Wolverine Invitational and won in three sets.

South Carolina looks to avenge one of its losses last season in matching up with the Wolverines after falling 4-3 in Ann Arbor, Mich. The January 2009 match was tied 3-3 and decided at No. 6 singles where Michelle Sulahian of the Wolverines pulled out a 7-5, 7-6(7) victory over Ashley Miller. Michigan also won courts four and five in singles as well as the doubles point, while South Carolina swept the top half of singles.

Also competing in Fayetteville are No. 18 Arkansas and No. 23 Washington, who play after the Gamecocks and Wolverines on Friday. The winners of the two contests will meet at 3 p.m. Saturday while the losers take the first match of the day at 11 a.m. The winning team in the region will move on to compete in the 16-team ITA National Team Indoor Championship hosted by the University of Wisconsin over Feb. 12-15.