Women's Tennis . February 25, 2018

South Carolina Sweeps CCU To Wrap Non-Conference Play

Feb. 25, 2018

Coastal Carolina at No. 11 South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. — No. 11 South Carolina women’s tennis (8-3) ended non-conference play on a strong note Sunday, completing its third straight sweep of the weekend with a 4-0 win over Coastal Carolina.

The Gamecocks secured the doubles point with two dominant wins, while No. 45 Hadley Berg, No. 124 Ingrid Gamarra Martins and Megan Davies won their singles matches in straight sets to complete the sweep. With the win, the team improved to 4-0 all-time against Coastal Carolina and has still yet to surrender a team point to the Chanticleers. The Gamecocks are 6-0 at home and have recorded five sweeps this season.

DOUBLES

Similar to Saturday’s matches against North Florida and Charleston Southern, the Gamecocks dominated doubles against the Chanticleers. Megan Davies and Rachel Rohrabacher earned a perfect 6-0 victory against Iryna Vardanian and Alexa Tiefel. The win improved the duo to 4-0 in 2018 and marked the first win at the No. 2 doubles spot for Rohrabacher and Davies this year. Individually, Davies is now 5-2 and Rohrabacher is now 6-1 in dual match doubles play this year.

Ingrid Gamarra Martins and Mia Horvit earned their first win of the year as a pair, besting Rylie Cox and Jessie Mount, 6-1. The doubles tandem, which was previously 0-1 in dual match play, jumped out to a 3-0 lead and cruised to victory from there.

“We were really trying to see who is going to work well out there together,” head coach Kevin Epley said. “See what kind of chemistry they had, how they run plays and play what we call Gamecock doubles.”

DOUBLES

1. Paige Cline / Hadley Berg (SC) vs. Sara Bondar/Somer Dalla-Bona, (CCU) 4-1, unfinished

2. Megan Davies / Rachel Rohrabacher (SC) def. Iryna Vardanian/Alexa Tiefel (CCU) 6-0

3. Mia Horvit / Ingrid Gamarra Martins (SC) def. Rylie Cox/Jessie Mount (CCU) 6-1

Order of finish

3, 2

SINGLES

Following a dominant doubles performance, the Gamecocks kept their feet on the gas in singles. All six singles players won their first sets before Hadley Berg, Megan Davies and Ingrid Gamarra Martins went on to win their matches.

After two losses at ITA Indoors and two unfinished matches on Saturday, Berg earned a 6-1, 6-0 win against Iryna Vardanian at the No. 1 singles spot. Davies was the next Gamecock to win her singles match, garnering a quick 6-1, 6-0 victory over Alexa Tiefel. The win marked Davies’ second of the weekend and improved her dual match record to 6-2 this season. Gamarra Martins clinched the sweep for South Carolina with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Sara Bondar. She dropped the first game of the second set, but responded with six straight games to earn her sixth win of the dual match campaign. Both Gamarra Martins and Davies are 8-2 over their last 10 matches.

“I think Mia (Horvit) played very well particularly yesterday. Paige was great in singles and doubles all weekend,” Epley said. “There were minor victories for all of them. Behind the scenes, we’ve been working on stuff with each of them and a lot of them brought that stuff out.”

SINGLES

1. #45 Hadley Berg (SC) def. Iryna Vardanian (CCU) 6-1, 6-0

2. Mia Horvit (SC) vs. Somer Dalla-Bona (CCU) 6-0, 3-2, unfinished

3. #124 Ingrid Gamarra Martins (SC) def. Sara Bondar (CCU) 6-0, 6-1

4. Paige Cline (SC) vs. Maria Khomchenko (CCU) 6-1, 3-2, unfinished

5. Rachel Rohrabacher (SC) vs. Jessie Mount (CCU) 6-1, 3-1, unfinished

6. Megan Davies (SC) def. Alexa Tiefel (CCU) 6-1, 6-0

Order of finish

1, 6, 3

QUOTABLE

“We had some real good performances. We had Mia (Horvit) coming back. She had been away for a little bit dealing with some stuff. We had Paige (Cline) who hasn’t been in the lineup that much. We had some question marks and saw some good things out of them. Some holes yesterday that we had to deal with and we kind of challenged them this morning. I think they responded very well today. They came back and fought real hard and played some good doubles. Doubles was the thing I was most impressed with this weekend. That’s something we had been struggling with. Applying some of the stuff that we had been working on. I think they did a very good job of that.” — Head Coach Kevin Epley

GAMECOCK NOTABLES

The Gamecocks own a 4-0 all-time series lead against Coastal Carolina, dating back to March 11, 1991. All four of their wins — 8-0 in 1991, 7-0 in 2016, 4-0 in 2017 and Sunday’s 4-0 victory — were sweeps.
Sunday’s win snapped the Chanticleers’ four-match winning streak, which included victories over ECU, St. John’s, North Carolina A&T and Wofford.
Berg’s 16-3 singles record this season has her at 90-29 overall for her career, with a winning percentage of .756 that ranks seventh in school history.
After a 3-0 weekend at home, head coach Kevin Epley is now eight match wins away from reaching 100 at South Carolina and is seven wins from 250 overall on his career.

UP NEXT FOR THE GAMECOCKS

The Gamecocks will open SEC play at Mississippi State on March 1 and at No. 3 Ole Miss on March 3. South Carolina holds a 28-2 all-time series lead against the Bulldogs, including its most recent 4-1 win at the Carolina Tennis Center on April 7, 2017.

For updates, continue to check back with GamecocksOnline.com or follow the team on social media (@GamecockWTennis).