South Carolina Hosts Doubleheader Sunday

Feb. 7, 2014

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The No. 33 South Carolina women’s tennis team hosts a doubleheader Sunday against Charleston Southern at 10 a.m. and Davidson at 3 p.m. at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia, S.C.

The Gamecocks enter the weekend coming off a dominant 7-0 performance over Furman on Wednesday indoors at the USC Field House. South Carolina is 4-1 this season with wins against East Tennessee State, College of Charleston and VCU in addition to Furman. CSU’s Buccaneers are 1-1 after defeating Troy and losing to Clemson and will face NC State on Saturday before taking on the Gamecocks. The Wildcats of Davidson are off to a 2-3 start after wins against Radford and Brevard and losses to Virginia Tech, College of Charleston and East Carolina.

South Carolina has little history with CSU but did face the Buccaneers for just the second time in school history last season for an indoor match. The Gamecocks won that contest 5-0 along with a 1998 contest by an 8-1 score. The Gamecocks are 7-1 against the Wildcats with the lone loss coming in 1975. Since then, South Carolina has not surrendered a point to Davidson and last defeated the school 7-0 in 2007.

In their last match with Furman, the Gamecocks had little trouble winning the doubles point with victories at the Nos. 1 and 2 courts. Elixane Lechemia scored the first point in singles with a straight set win on court one followed quickly by Katerina Popova at No. 2 singles. Other winners for the Gamecocks included No. 113-ranked Brigit Folland at three, Ximena Siles Luna at four, Caroline Dailey at five and Alex Martin at six.

For the season, Dailey continues to lead the Gamecocks in singles victories with an 11-5 record followed by Folland at 10-7. Lechemia and Siles Luna are both one win away from reaching double figures and Popova has eight wins on the season. Meghan Blevins tops Carolina in doubles victories with 11 and she and Lechemia combine to form the Gamecocks’ winningest duo at 7-3.

After this weekend’s double dip, South Carolina will host instate rival and 13th-ranked Clemson on Sunday, Feb. 16, at noon at Carolina Tennis Center.