March 21, 2012
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COLUMBIA, S.C. — The No. 32 South Carolina women’s tennis team returns to SEC play this week facing No. 19 Ole Miss on Friday in Oxford, Miss., before hosting Mississippi State on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Carolina Tennis Center.
South Carolina (10-4, 1-3 SEC) scored a pair of victories in its final two non-conference matches of the regular season last week to finish 9-1 versus teams outside the SEC. The Gamecocks survived a scare from No. 66 Georgia State, winning by a 4-3 margin and then needed just over two hours to earn a 7-0 victory against Old Dominion.
The Gamecocks still have three nationally ranked players in singles with Anya Morgina (45), Dijana Stojic (76) and Jaklin Alawi (82). In doubles, the Gamecocks sport two nationally ranked tandems with both featuring Alawi as a member. She is ranked No. 64 with Stojic and No. 70 with Morgina. Alawi teamed with Morgina last weekend and recorded two victories to help run the pair’s record to 6-0 this season.
Alawi is currently the team’s leader in both singles and doubles victories this year. The junior from Bulgaria picked up her 20th win of the season against Old Dominion to improve to 20-6 and 9-4 at No. 2 singles. In doubles, she is 17-7 and 10-3 in dual matches playing with four different partners.
Morgina, named SEC Player of the Week on Wednesday, is second on the team in singles victories with a 16-6 record. She is 10-3 at No. 1 singles and provided the clinching point for the Gamecocks against Georgia State. Morgina defeated No. 34 Abigail Tere-Apisah, the highest ranked player she has beaten this spring.
Katerina Popova continued her tear over the weekend, extending her winning streak to five matches. Popova has won nine of her last 10 and stands 17-8 on the season. She is the Gamecocks’ leader in dual match wins with an 11-3 mark. She and Josefin Andersson have also combined to win four straight in doubles at the No. 3 position and are 11-6 together overall, the most wins for any Carolina duo this season. Popova and Andersson are 5-2 this spring on court three and 2-2 in SEC matches.
Ole Miss (10-6, 2-2 SEC) won its only match played last week, downing Florida International 7-0 in Miami. Kristi Boxx was named the SEC Player of the Week last week after going 4-0 in singles and doubles against Tennessee and Georgia. She led the Rebels to a 5-2 win over then-No. 8 Tennessee. Boxx owns a 20-7 overall record and is 10-4 at No. 1 singles. She has won six in a row at No. 1 singles and moved up to No. 12 in the latest ITA singles rankings. Boxx also teams with Abby Guthrie for a 13-1 record at No. 1 doubles and a No. 5 ranking. Caroline Rohde-Moe also holds a national ranking of 72nd in singles.
Mississippi State (6-7, 0-4 SEC) went undefeated last week when it traveled to New Orleans for two consecutive matches. Against then-No. 52 Tulane, the Lady Bulldogs secured a closely contested 4-3 victory. After falling in all three doubles matches, MSU bounced back to take wins on courts one, three, five, and six. Alexandra Perper, ranked 115th, initiated the Bulldog rally with an impressive 6-3, 6-1 triumph. Roseline Dion clinched the MSU victory in a close 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 decision. The match was followed by a 7-0 sweep against New Orleans.
South Carolina and Ole Miss have enjoyed several closely contested matches over the years with the Gamecocks owning a slight 14-13 edge in the all-time series. South Carolina, though, has managed to win 12 of the past 14 match-ups between the two schools. Seven of the Gamecocks’ victories during that span have come in 4-3 decisions, including the most recent one in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Knoxville, Tenn., last April. South Carolina has pulled out three straight 4-3 wins over the Rebels in Oxford beginning in 2006.
The Gamecocks have never lost a match to the Bulldogs of Mississippi State since joining the SEC in 1991-92. South Carolina owns 22 consecutive triumphs over MSU. Last year, the Gamecocks blanked the Bulldogs 7-0 in Starkville, Miss. South Carolina’s only loss in the series came when the teams first met in 1989 in Columbia and Mississippi State walked away with a 5-4 win.
