April 30, 2014

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Elixane Lechemia and Dominika Kanakova from the No. 28 South Carolina women’s tennis team received an at-large bid to the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship on Wednesday evening. The event begins May 22 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.

Lechemia began the season playing No. 1 doubles with Meghan Blevins but then teamed up with Kanakova in late February once Kanakova returned from an injury. The duo is 9-4 this year at No. 1 doubles and tied a school record by winning seven SEC matches at the top spot. In the team’s last outing against Alabama in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, Lechemia and Kanakova posted an 8-4 victory against Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe, who were ranked No. 7 at the time and are now No. 4.

With Lechemia and Kanakova’s selection, South Carolina has placed a singles competitor or doubles team in 26 of 33 NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Helen Crook and Victoria Davies are the only South Carolina duo to go as far as the semifinals, which happened in 1994. Kanakova competed in last year’s tournament as well with Jaklin Alawi and lost in the first round. Kanakova is the first Gamecock to compete in back-to-back NCAA Doubles Championships since Kathy Boyanovich and Jennifer Radman teamed up for the 2001 and 2002 tournaments.

The draws for the singles and doubles tournaments will be determined at a coaches meeting May 20.