March 5, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina women’s tennis team opened SEC play Friday with a 5-2 win over LSU at Maxcy Gregg Tennis Center in Columbia, S.C.

South Carolina (5-3, 1-0 SEC) got off to a sluggish start, losing on courts one and two to give LSU (2-7, 0-1 SEC) the 1-0 lead heading to singles. On court one, the Gamecock duo of Ana Marija Zubori and Dijana Stojic took a 2-0 lead on Whitney Wolf and Kaitlin Burns of LSU, but the Tigers quickly won three straight games for a 3-2 advantage. Zubori and Stojic took the next two games to make it 4-3 in their favor, but LSU responded by winning the following two games and then held for an 8-6 win that clinched the point.

Court two finished first for LSU. Keri Frankenberger and Hannah Robinson won the first four games before the Gamecocks’ Miljana Jocic and Madeleine Saari-Byström made the score 4-1. Robinson and Frankenberger extended the lead to 6-1 on the next changeover before eventually winning 8-3.

The Gamecocks managed to pick up a win at No. 3 doubles thanks to Anya Morgina and Adriana Pereira. After losing the first game to Nicole Kantor and Ebie Wilson, Morgina and Pereira won four games in a row and closed out the match with an 8-5 triumph.

South Carolina came back to win five first sets in singles to put the pressure on LSU. Pereira needed less than an hour to win her match at six against Robinson 6-0, 6-1 to tie the score at 1-all. Jocic was next to win 6-2, 6-3 over Wilson at the No. 5 spot in a match that despite the score took more than two hours to decide.

LSU tied up the score once again after Frankenberger managed to come back and defeat Saari-Byström on court four. Saari-Byström won easily in the first set 6-1, but Frankenberger fought her way to a 6-4 triumph in the second. Saari-Bystrom then won the first game of the third set, however, Frankenberger took control and went on to win 6-2 in the third.

Morgina pulled South Carolina to within a point of clinching the match by upending Kantor at the No. 3 slot. Morgina won 6-2 in the first but faltered 6-3 in the second and fell behind 3-1 in the third. Morgina then found a way to charge back and ended up winning five games in a row for a 6-3 triumph.

Stojic clinched the match for the Gamecocks at two, defeating Burns 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-1 at No. 2 singles. It was Stojic’s 10th win her last 11 matches dating back to the fall and improved her dual match record on the year to 7-1.

Zubori closed out the evening with a 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 win over Wolf at the No. 1 spot. It was a historic win for the lone Gamecock senior, as she became just the third player in school history to win 100 career singles matches.

The Gamecocks will next host No. 15 Arkansas on Sunday at 1 p.m.

#58 South Carolina (5-3, 1-0 SEC) def. LSU (2-7, 0-1 SEC), 5-2

Singles
1. #72 Ana Marija Zubori, USC, def. Whitney Wolf, LSU, 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4
2. Dijana Stojic, USC, def. Kaitlin Burns, LSU, 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-1
3. #111 Anya Morgina, USC, def. Nicole Kantor, LSU, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
4. Keri Frankenberger, LSU, def. Madeleine Saari-Byström, USC, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2
5. Miljana Jocic, USC, def. Ebie Wilson, LSU, 6-2, 6-3
6. Adriana Pereira, USC, def. Hannah Robinson, LSU, 6-0, 6-1

Order of Finish: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Doubles
1. Burns/Wolf, LSU, def. Stojic/Zubori, USC, 8-6
2. Frankenberger/Robinson, LSU, def. Jocic/Saari-Bystöm, USC, 8-3
3. Morgina/Pereira, USC, def. Kantor/Wilson, LSU, 8-5

Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3