Jan. 28, 2011
| Coach Petrovic Previews the ITA Kick-Off Weekend |
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The No. 22 South Carolina women’s tennis team is set to face No. 21 Arizona State in the first round of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Saturday in Coral Gables, Fla., at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
The Gamecocks enter the match-up with a 2-0 record following a pair of 6-1 victories against South Carolina State and Furman. The Sun Devils also hold a 2-0 mark with two 7-0 wins at home over Iowa State and UC Davis last week.
South Carolina had a tough outing with Furman in its last match Tuesday in Greenville, S.C. After sweeping the doubles, the Gamecocks went to three sets in two matches and managed to win both. Dijana Stojic clinched the match at No. 2 singles with her three-set victory to improve to 2-0 on the year. She won her doubles match playing with Dominika Kanakova at the No. 1 spot where the pair is 2-0.
Kanakova had an impressive match versus Furman, coming back from 4-0 down in the first set to win in a tiebreaker. She went on to take the second set 6-3 to stay unbeaten at No. 4 singles this year.
Also winning against Furman were Madeleine Saari-Byström, Miljana Jocic and Josefin Andersson. Saari-Byström trailed 5-3 in her first set before going on to win in straight sets on court three, while Jocic won handily 6-1, 6-3 at No. 6 singles. Andersson played a super tiebreaker for her third set and fell behind 8-4 before coming back to win in impressive fashion 11-9 at the No. 5 spot.
The ITA rankings have Anya Morgina listed as the highest rated player for South Carolina at No. 37 in singles, and she is 37th in doubles with Kanakova. The two were 5-0 in the fall but have not played together this spring. Stojic is 93rd in singles followed by Katerina Popova at No. 117.
For Arizona State, Kelcy McKenna is No. 34 and is just ahead of Jacqueline Cako, who is 38th. Micaela Hein is ranked No. 74 and Hannah James is No. 90 to round out ASU’s singles rankings. For doubles, the Sun Devils have McKenna and Hein listed at 28th, while Michelle Brycki and James are 48th.
The winner of Saturday’s match will advance to play the winner of No. 11 Miami and No. 54 Florida International on Sunday at 2 p.m. The losers from each match will play at 10 am. Sunday.
