March 30, 2012

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 38 South Carolina women’s tennis team dropped a 7-0 decision at No. 13 Alabama on Friday at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility. The Gamecocks dropped to 11-6 on the year and 2-5 in the SEC, while the Crimson Tide remained unbeaten in league play at 7-0 while improving to 13-2 on the season as a whole.

“Alabama definitely was the better team,” interim head coach Katarina Petrovic said. “They deserved to win. My girls competed, but we couldn’t get a win. In really tough situations and tough points, we came up short. Overall, it was a tough match and a tough loss, but I give credit to Alabama. They really deserved to win today.”

The Gamecocks lost all three doubles matches to start the afternoon. Alabama’s Alexa Guarachi and Courtney McLane raced out to a 5-0 lead on Anya Morgina and Jaklin Alawi on court one before going on to win 8-1. The Crimson Tide’s No. 2 team of Antonia Foehse and Mary Anne Macfarlane clinched the doubles point by overcoming a 4-1 deficit with an 8-4 victory against Adriana Pereira and Dominika Kanakova. Alabama’s Taylor Lindsey and Yasmine Ebada ended doubles play with an 8-6 triumph over Katerina Popova and Josefin Andersson on court three, ending the Gamecock duo’s six-match winning streak.

Alabama ran the score to 2-0 with Foehse picking up a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Pereira on court five in singles. Guarachi then held off Alawi 6-4, 6-3 at No. 2 singles to put the Tide within a point of picking up the win. Lindsey provided the clincher for the Crimson Tide at No. 6 singles with a 6-4, 6-2 triumph against Andersson.

Once the Crimson Tide had secured the win, Popova retired from her match against Alex Clay on court four after losing the first set 7-6 (7-3) and trailing 4-3 in the second. It snapped Popova’s seven-match winning streak. On court three, Kanakova and McLane had split sets when Lindsey clinched the match and Morgina was already in the third tied 2-all with Macfarlane at the No. 1 position.

After the first 10 points in the super tiebreaker on court three, the match was tied 5-all. McLane then won the next four points to set up several match points. Kanakova received a double fault from McLane to save one match point, but McLane won the next point to pick up the win and make the score 6-0 in favor of Alabama.

“McLane is a very tough opponent,” Petrovic said. “We’ve seen her for many years and she’s playing really well. Dominika was more aggressive and her serve was working really well. In the second set, she had a few more unforced errors. Unfortunately, at 5-4 down, she had love-40 and she lost that game on McLane’s serve. McLane was just playing better in the 10-point tiebreaker.”

Macfarlane was serving with a 4-3 lead on Morgina in the third when Kanakova and McLane finished their match. Morgina managed to get a break after multiple deuces to put the set back on serve. Macfarlane broke right back in the next game when she gained a 15-40 advantage on her first break point for a chance to serve out the match. Macfarlane then earned the 40-30 upper hand in the next game and closed out the match to give her squad the sweep.

South Carolina next faces No. 62 Auburn on Sunday in Auburn, Ala., at 1 p.m.

Singles
1. #23 Mary Anne Macfarlane, UA, def. #35 Anya Morgina, USC, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
2. #56 Alexa Guarachi, UA, def. #68 Jaklin Alawi, USC, 6-4, 6-3
3. Courtney McLane, UA, def. Dominika Kanakova, USC, 4-6, 6-4, (10-6)
4. Alex Clay, UA, def. Katerina Popova, USC, 7-6 (7-3), 4-3 retired
5. Antonia Foehse, UA, def. Adriana Pereira, USC, 6-0, 6-1
6. Taylor Lindsey, UA, def. Josefin Andersson, USC, 6-4, 6-2

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

Doubles
1. #19 Guarachi/McLane, UA, def. #65 Alawi/Morgina, USC, 8-1
2. #47 Foehse/Macfarlane, UA, def. Kanakova/Pereira, USC, 8-4
3. Lindsey/Yasmine Ebada, UA, def. Andersson/Popova, USC, 8-6

Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3