May 22, 2012

2012 NCAA Singles Championship Draw

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Senior Anya Morgina from the South Carolina women’s tennis team begins play in the NCAA Singles Championship on Wednesday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. Morgina, ranked No. 45, will take on No. 15 Jacqueline Cako of Arizona State in the first round at 3 p.m. ET.

Morgina earned her second consecutive nod to an All-SEC Team in 2012, picking up second-team honors. She played No. 1 singles all season long for the second year in a row and went 14-6 at the position. Morgina was 4-6 in SEC play atop the lineup and is 20-9 overall. She has held a national ranking in singles all year and achieved a career-high ranking of 20th earlier in the spring, the highest for a Gamecock since the 2009 campaign.

Morgina and Cako have never played at the collegiate level. Fellow 2011-12 senior Dijana Stojic is the only Gamecock to have taken on Cako in a collegiate match. Stojic lost to Cako in straight sets playing No. 2 singles in a dual match versus ASU in January 2011 in Coral Cables, Fla., in the opening round of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.

South Carolina has placed a singles competitor or doubles team in 24 of 31 NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Laura Bernstein remains the only Gamecock to advance to the round of 16 in singles, doing so in 1983. In doubles, Helen Crook and Victoria Davies are the only South Carolina duo to go as far as the semifinals, which happened in 1994.