Oct. 7, 2010
| Coach Elkins |
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina women’s tennis team returns to the courts Friday when it begins play in the Wildcat Invitational hosted by Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.
Miljana Jocic, Dominika Kanakova, Anya Morgina, Katerina Popova and Dijana Stojic will represent the Gamecocks at the event. The tournament consists of four 16-person singles flights and four flights of doubles with eight teams in each. In addition to Carolina and host Northwestern, other teams in the field include Akron, DePaul, Illinois-Chicago, Iowa, LSU, Michigan State, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
South Carolina will look to continue the success it found at the Northwestern Invitational in 2008 and 2009. The Gamecocks dominated the field two years ago with a combined record of 28-4 in singles and doubles. Carolina’s only loss in doubles that year came when two of its tandems met in the finals of a draw. Last year, the Gamecocks went a combined 22-7 to bring their two-year total to 50-11 (.820) in Evanston.
Kanakova will look to continue her six-match winning streak and build upon her team-leading seven victories in singles. The freshman from Czech Republic also has the team’s best doubles record at 8-2. She and Anya Morgina are a combined 5-0 in doubles this fall.
Morgina owns a 6-3 record in singles and has one singles title this fall coming in her flight at the SEC Fall Coaches Classic. At the same event, she and Kanakova won a doubles title as well. Morgina’s combined record in doubles between her various partners stands at 7-2, which is second on the team in victories.
Jocic is 5-3 in both singles and doubles, while Stojic is 3-2 in singles play and 4-1 in doubles. Stojic earned singles champion honors at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic in September after going undefeated at the tournament, while Jocic and Morgina were tabbed the doubles champions.
Popova, the Gamecocks’ other freshman in addition to Kanakova, has a 5-1 record in singles and finished as the singles runner-up to Stojic in Milwaukee. Popova has played with three different doubles partners this fall for a combined record of 4-3.
After the Wildcat Invitational, South Carolina will wrap up its fall schedule playing in the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional Championships in Chapel Hill, N.C., over Oct. 21-25.
