Women's Tennis . March 3, 2017

No. 19 Gamecocks Defeat No. 20 Texas A&M

March 3, 2017

Pos.	Matchup	Score
1.	#99 Mia Horvit (SC) d. #745 Rachel Pierson (TAMU)	7-6(8), 6-3
2.	#75 Rutuja Bhosale (TAMU) d. Caroline Dailey (TAMU)	6-2, 6-1
3.	#110 Paige Cline (SC) d. Macarena Olivares (TAMU)	6-4, 7-5
4.	#119 Silvia Chinellato (SC) d. Saska Gavrilovska (TAMU)	6-0, 7-6(4)
5.	Hadley Berg (SC) vs. Tina Bokhua (TAMU)	3-6, 6-2, 6-3
6.	Brigit Folland (SC} vs. Domenica Gonzalez (TAMU)	Susp.

Pos.	Matchup	Score
1.	#27 Berg/Cline (USC) vs. #14 Pierson/Bhosale (TAMU)	Susp.
2.	Gonzalez/Paalma (TAMU) d. Folland/Dailey (SC)	6-2
3.	Olivares/Hristov (TAMU) d. Rohrabacher/Chinellato (SC)	6-3

COLUMBIA, S.C. — No. 19 South Carolina women’s tennis defeated No. 20 Texas A&M on the road to open SEC play. The Gamecocks improved to 9-2 in dual play and 1-0 in SEC play. The Aggies dropped to 8-4 with the less.

South Carolina lost a hotly contested doubles point to fall behind 1-0 heading into singles. Auburn won courts two and three to claim the point. Domenica Gonzalez and Eva Paalma held off Brigit Folland and Caroline Dailey to win 6-2. A few moments later, Macarena Olivares and Stefania Hristov took a 6-3 victory over Silvia Chinellato and Rachel Rohrabacher for the clincher.

In singles play, the Aggies doubled their lead with a quick victory on court two, but the Gamecocks found their rhythm to take four straight. Chinellato (119) cut A&M’s lead to one with her decisive 6-0, 7-6 triumph over Gavrilovska at the No. 4 spot. Paige Cline (110) got the score even at two a apiece, grinding out tough-fought sets in her favor to win 6-4, 7-5.

Freshman Mia Horvit (100) gave the Gamecocks their first lead of the night, taking down her second ranked opponent of the season with a straight-set win over No. 45 Rachel Pierson 7-6, 6-3. Hadley Berg stretched her win-streak to 10 and clinched the SEC opener with her 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win, only her second to go to the third set this season, on court five making a 4-2 final.

Quotable

Head Coach Kevin Epley

” The team really stepped up and fought in the final third of the match, which was great to see against a very strong Texas A&M team and on their home turf. The Aggies came out playing very strong doubles today and we really had to regroup to go get it done in singles. We’ve been spending a lot of time focusing on match goals and for the most part, we accomplished what we set out to do today. We still aren’t playing our best doubles yet, but we are going to set out to figure that out tomorrow in Baton Rouge. While we’re happy to win, we really need to start gearing up for another tough battle on Sunday.”

Up Next

The Gamecocks return to action Sunday, March 5 to continue their SEC slate, facing No. 37 LSU in Baton Rouge at 11 a.m. at the LSU Tennis Complex.