May 11, 2016

COLUMBIA, S.C. — No. 13 South Carolina women’s tennis will take on Winthrop Friday at 5 p.m. at the Carolina Tennis Center in the 2016 NCAA Tournament First Round. The Gamecocks, who are hosting first- and second-round action for the first time since 2002, will follow a match between No. 17 Georgia Tech and No. 39 Princeton Friday at 2 p.m. The winners will square off Saturday at 2 p.m. for the right to go to the University of Tulsa’s Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., May 19-24 to compete in the Round of 16.

PROJECTED GAMECOCK LINEUP

Singles
1. #58 Caroline Dailey
2. #78 Ingrid Gamarra Martins
3. #83 Paige Cline
4. Hadley Berg
5. Brigit Folland
6. Ximena Siles Luna
Doubles
1. #29 Hadley Berg/Paige Cline
2. Caroline Dailey/Brigit Folland
3. Ingrid Gamarra Martins/Rachel Rohrabacher

NCAA EXCELLENCE

Overall, South Carolina has been selected for the NCAA Tournament 26 times in 35 years. With 26 bids, South Carolina has the 13th-most NCAA appearances in the country. South Carolina’s 22 NCAA appearances in a row are tied for the 11th-longest active streak in the nation as well. South Carolina has reached the Round of 16 six times (1983, 1983, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2009) and advanced as far as the quarterfinals twice (1982, 2009). The Gamecocks have also won at least one round in the tournament 18 times during their previous 21 appearances.

ABOUT THE GAMECOCKS

The Gamecocks enter the tournament with an 18-7 record overall and after going 9-4 in SEC play. Carolina’s 18 wins marks its most since 1999 and nine SEC wins matches a program high. Individually, Caroline Dailey is ranked a career-best No. 58 while freshmen Ingrid Gamarra Martins and Paige Cline, who round out the top half of the singles lineup, are ranked No. 78 and No. 83, respectively. Additionally, the Gamecocks’ top doubles tandem of Cline and fellow Californian Hadley Berg are ranked No. 29. Junior Brigit Folland led the team in wins with a 24-6 singles mark that included a 17-4 showing in the spring and 8-3 SEC record at No. 5. Kevin Epley, now in his fourth year with the Gamecocks, has led South Carolina to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first four seasons at the school, advancing to the Round of 32 in each of the last two seasons.

SCOUTING THE EAGLES

Winthrop enters the postseason with a 20-5 record after capturing its 18th Big South Conference Championship. The Eagles will be making their eighth NCAA appearance in the past nine years and 14th overall. The top four positions in the singles lineup have been stellar for Winthrop, posting a combined 77-18 record. Freshman Lauren Proctor leads the way from the top spot with a 20-4 mark, while senior Alice Garcia is 19-5 at No. 2, sophomore Mariana Humberg is 20-3 at No. 3, and redshirt junior Caitlin Cridland is 17-5 at No. 4. The Eagles’ strength in doubles comes at No. 1 and No. 3, where they are a combined 36-12 this spring. Garcia and senior Tijana Uzelac are riding an 11-match win streak at No. 3 into the tournament.

SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS

No. 17 Georgia Tech comes to Columbia after going 17-8 this spring with a semifinal appearance in the ACC Tournament and narrowly missing out on a host bid itself. The Yellow Jackets went 11-3 in ACC play to finish third in the conference and posted top-25 wins against No. 22 Wake Forest, No. 25 Clemson, at No. 12 Virginia and No. 8 Duke this spring. The Yellow Jackets’ top two players were selected to compete in the NCAA Singles Championships. No. 32 Johnnise Renaud earned a spot after going 14-8 in dual matches and 9-8 at No. 1 singles, while No. 44 Paige Hourigan also received a bid after going 14-6 in dual matches, 10-3 at No. 2 singles and 11-2 in conference play. Hourigan and partner Kendal Woodard, ranked 12th nationally, earned a bid in the Doubles Championship after going 18-3 in dual matches.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS

Princeton, ranked 39th, is in South Carolina’s regional for the second-consecutive year after the Gamecocks topped the Tigers in the opening last season. Making their third-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, the Tigers went 13-9 after winning the Ivy League title with a 5-2 conference record during the regular season. The Tigers clinched the automatic NCAA bid for the third year in a row after defeating Cornell, 5-2, on April 17. Junior Caroline Joyce led the Tigers with 15 wins this spring, including a 5-2 Ivy League mark, while senior Amanda Muliawan was solid at the top with a 12-8 dual-match record. The Tigers were 7-7 this spring against nationally ranked opponents, including a win against No. 34 Columbia.

SERIES HISTORIES

South Carolina and Winthrop played annually from 2004-13 with the Gamecocks going a perfect 10-0 against the Eagles. The Gamecocks and Georgia Tech have played seven times with South Carolina winning the first four contests while the Yellow Jackets have taken the last three, most recently in 2012. Carolina is 2-0 against Princeton, including last season’s 4-3 win in the First Round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

HOSTING

This year marks the fourth time South Carolina women’s tennis has hosted an NCAA Regional with the previous three occurring in 2002, 1999 and 1996. In all three years, the Gamecocks won their first-round matchup, while the 1999 squad also captured a win in the Second Round to advance to the Round of 16 in Gainesville, Fla., where they fell to Georgia. This season, the Gamecocks are 10-3 at home with notable wins against defending national champion Vanderbilt, then-No. 15 LSU, then-No. 19 Kentucky, and then-No. 21 Clemson.

TRIO RECEIVES INDIVIDUAL BIDS

South Carolina women’s tennis junior Caroline Dailey earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Singles Championships, while the Gamecocks’ tandem of sophomore Hadley Berg and freshman Paige Cline received an at-large bid to NCAA Doubles Championship. The events take place May 25-30 in Tulsa, Okla. Dailey, currently ranked 58th, played No. 1 singles for the Gamecocks all spring, posting three wins over top-30 opponents. South Carolina’s top doubles tandem of Berg and Cline, which has been ranked as high as No. 24 this spring and currently No. 29 in the nation, is one of seven SEC duos in the 32-team field. The two, who attended the same high school a year apart in northern California, played together only once in the fall season before joining forces at the top of the lineup this spring to post an 11-5 record in dual matches. The duo also matched the school’s top SEC doubles record at the No. 1 position by going 7-4 at No. 1 in league play.

GAMECOCKS AND THE INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

With the trio’s selections to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship, South Carolina has placed a singles competitor or doubles team in 28 of 35 NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Laura Bernstein remains the only Gamecock to advance as far as the Round of 16 in singles, doing so in 1983. She is also the only Gamecock singles All-American in school history. Dailey is the second Gamecock in as many seasons to earn a spot in the Singles Championship, following Elixane Lechemia’s entry last season. Players who win at least two rounds in the singles and/or doubles events automatically receive All-America status. That’s what Helen Crook and Victoria Davies did in 1994 when they reached the semifinals of the Doubles Championship, the best finish in school history for the event. Crook and Davies are the Gamecocks’ only doubles All-Americans.

HONOR ROLL

Freshman Ingrid Gamarra Martins took home SEC All-Freshman honors this season after going 23-11, 14-9 in dual-match play and 6-6 in the SEC at No. 2 singles. South Carolina led the SEC in weekly awards as four Gamecocks took home honors throughout the spring. Junior Caroline Dailey and sophomore Hadley Berg won SEC Player of the Week awards, while Martins and fellow freshman Paige Cline shared four Freshman of the Week awards. Assistant Coach Jeff Nevolo, in his second season with the program, was named the ITA Carolina Region Assistant Coach of the Year, while senior Ximena Siles Luna was honored with the Caroline Region ITA/Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship.

THE EPLEY ERA

The Gamecocks’ head man Kevin Epley took over at South Carolina in June 2012 and wasted no time furthering the winning tradition established by the late Arlo Elkins. Epley has taken the Gamecocks to the NCAA Tournament in each of his four seasons and has never missed NCAAs in his 12 years as a head coach. Epley has advanced his teams to at least the Second Round of the tournament eight times. His all-time record stands at 214-100 heading into this year’s NCAA Tournament.

WINNING BY COMMITTEE

While junior Caroline Dailey has been playing the best tennis of her career as of late at the top of the lineup, the Gamecocks’ most consistent point production this season has come from the No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the lineup, manned mostly by sophomore Hadley Berg and junior Brigit Folland. The two have combined for 34 singles wins this spring to just 10 losses. Additionally, freshman Paige Cline and senior Ximena Siles Luna have been consistent at No. 3 and No. 6, respectively, winning 67 percent of their decisions this season.

EMPHASIS ON DOUBLES

Head coach Kevin Epley places a strong emphasis on doubles play, and it has proven to be pivotal to the team’s success this season. The Gamecocks have won the doubles point in 18 of 25 matches this season with the point proving crucial in 4-3 wins over No. 7 Virginia, No. 5 Vanderbilt, No. 15 LSU and at No. 56 Alabama. The Gamecocks lost only two matches this season after winning the doubles point.

NCAA FORMAT HISTORY

The NCAA first held a championship for women’s tennis in 1982 in Salt Lake City. For the first six championships, the field consisted of just 16 teams and expanded to 20 starting in 1988. From 1988 to 1995, eight of the 20 teams selected played first-round matches and the other 12 received byes. From 1996 to 1998, the NCAA changed the format to include 58 teams, with 10 receiving automatic bids to the 16-team championship. The other six spots were determined through regional tournaments in six regions (East, Central, Midwest, Southeast, Southwest, West) with eight schools in each. In 1999, the NCAA adopted what is still the current format of a 64-team bracket where each team must play every round. First- and second-round matches are played at 16 campus sites with four teams each, and the Round of 16 and beyond is held at one institution. Starting in 2006, the NCAA combined the men’s and women’s Round of 16 and beyond at the same location over the same time frame and included the individual championships there as well.