Berg/Cline Move on to NCAA Quarterfinals
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May 27, 2016
TULSA, Okla. — The South Carolina doubles team of sophomore Hadley Berg and freshman Paige Cline earned its second top-10 win in as many days, knocking off No. 8 Pleun Burgmans and Alizee Michaud of Auburn 6-0, 6-4 Friday in the NCAA Doubles Round of 16 at Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. With the win, Berg and Cline, ranked No. 29 nationally, become just the second tandem in program history to reach the quarterfinals of the event and receive All-America status.
The Gamecock duo, which defeated No. 9 Anna Sanford/Miho Kowase of Ohio State Thursday in the first round, will take on No. 1 Hayley Carter and Whitney Kay of North Carolina in Saturday’s quarterfinals at 4 p.m. CT. Carter and Kay survived a third-set super-tiebreaker to beat No. 22 Stefani Stojic and Palina Dubavets of UC Santa Barbara on Friday.
“This was obviously a big day for Paige and Hadley,” South Carolina head coach Kevin Epley said. “They were pretty dominant in doubles at the beginning of the season, but towards the end had lost some confidence and weren’t playing as well. They have worked hard over the last few weeks and got back to some basics. They played well today against a tandem that was really good all season. To come out and pretty much dominate from the beginning was pretty incredible.”
Berg and Cline set the tone early with a quick break of Michaud before holding serve to take a 2-0 lead. The Gamecock tandem again broke serve as Berg slammed home a winner near the net to push the lead to 3-0. Clearly the aggressors, Berg and Cline never relinquished the momentum as they closed out the opening set 6-0.
After dropping the first game of the second set, Berg and Cline found their stride once more to pull in front 3-1. The lead then swelled to 5-2 as the Gamecocks kept a strong serve and captured another big break point. Leading 5-4, Cline’s serving powered her team to a commanding 40-love lead in the frame with an ace from the left-hander delivering the win.
Berg and Cline are the program’s first All-Americans since 1994 and the fourth and fifth All-Americans overall. The Californians also become the fifth doubles All-Americans for Epley in his head coaching career, and the 19th and 20th players he has coached to All-America honors overall.
For updates, follow the team on Twitter and Instagram at @GamecockWTennis, and stay tuned to www.GamecocksOnline.com.
