April 3, 2013

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Junior Katerina Popova from the South Carolina women’s tennis team has been named SEC Player of the Week. The Gamecocks took the award last week as well with Popova’s classmate Dominika Kanakova receiving the honors. It marks the first time in school history South Carolina has earned SEC Player of the Week in consecutive weeks.

Popova helped the Gamecocks defeat Arkansas and LSU on the road on the same weekend for the first time since 2007. Along with Josefin Andersson, the Gamecocks’ No. 2 doubles tandem clinched the point versus Arkansas, the 14th time the Gamecocks won doubles in 18 matches to that point. She picked up her second win against a ranked opponent this spring in defeating No. 97 Claudine Paulson of Arkansas and won in straight sets at No. 2 singles when the Gamecocks upended LSU 5-1. South Carolina and LSU did not play doubles.

The junior from Moscow, Russia, became the team leader in singles wins this past weekend with an 18-8 record. Popova also has the team’s best record in dual matches at 12-5 and is 5-4 in the SEC. She has won all three of her singles contests in helping the Gamecocks win three of their last four SEC matches to get back to 4-5 in the conference. Popova and the rest of the Carolina squad will look to move above .500 in the league when they host Mississippi State on Friday at 5 p.m. and Ole Miss on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.