Dailey, Doubles Duo Set for NCAA Individual Championships
May 24, 2016
TULSA, Okla. – A trio of Gamecocks will represent South Carolina women’s tennis at the NCAA Individual Championships at Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., this week as junior Caroline Dailey will compete in the NCAA Singles Championship beginning Wed., May 25, while the doubles tandem of sophomore Hadley Berg and freshman Paige Cline begin play Thursday.
Dailey will take on 17th-ranked Catherine Harrison of UCLA at 10:30 a.m. CT in the First Round of the 64-woman Singles Championship and would face top-seeded Hayley Carter of North Carolina or Wisconsin’s Lauren Chypha in the Second Round with a win. No. 29 Berg and Cline will square off with Ohio State’s Miho Kowase and Anna Sanford, currently ranked No. 9 in the nation, in the 32-team Doubles Championship on Thursday.
Entering the competition with a career-best No. 58 ranking, Dailey played at the top of the Gamecocks’ singles lineup throughout the season, posting three wins over top-30 opponents, highlighted by a win over then-No. 11 Joana Eidukonyte of Clemson to tie the team score and set up the Gamecocks’ 4-3 win over the then-No. 21 Tigers. The Sarasota, Fla., native is the second Gamecock in as many seasons to earn a spot in the Singles Championship, following Elixane Lechemia’s entry last season.
South Carolina’s top doubles tandem of Berg and Cline, which has been ranked as high as No. 24 this spring, is one of seven SEC duos in the doubles 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.
South Carolina has had at least one entry in 28 of 35 NCAA Individual Championships. Laura Bernstein remains the only Gamecock to advance as far as the round of 16 in singles, doing so in 1983. Helen Crook and Victoria Davies are the only South Carolina duo to go as far as the semifinals, which happened in 1994.
Information, including live scoring, on both men’s and women’s individual championships is available at www.TulsaHurricane.com.
