South Carolina Heads to Athens for Bulldog Invitational
Women's Tennis Set for Matches With Georgia, Kentucky and Florida
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina women’s tennis team heads to Athens, Ga., for the Bulldog Invitational hosted by Georgia beginning Friday and ending Sunday. Other Southeastern Conference teams competing at the event in addition to the Gamecocks and host Bulldogs include the Florida Gators and Kentucky Wildcats.
“Obviously, going to Athens is always fun,” head coach Kevin Epley said. “They’ve got a good facility and a good place to compete, it’s a great town. We’ve got Kentucky there, which is another good team. Every team in the SEC is solid. We’ve got Florida there and we’ve got Georgia, so we’re really looking forward to all those matches. Three days of competition in a row, typically in the SEC it’s two with a day in between. It’s going to be a test of mental, physical and emotional will, so we’re just going to bring it and hopefully do better (than last weekend).”
Play kicks off Friday at 9 a.m. with South Carolina taking on two doubles teams from Florida and one each from Georgia and Kentucky. South Carolina then follows with four singles matches against the Gators, two versus the Bulldogs and two against the Wildcats as well.
On Saturday, Carolina begins with one doubles match versus Georgia and three with Kentucky. In singles action, the Gamecocks are scheduled for six matches with Kentucky and three with Georgia.
The Bulldog Invitational concludes Sunday with South Carolina taking on Georgia for three doubles matches and seven singles contests. The Gamecocks and Wildcats will also meet in singles for a pair of matchups.
South Carolina got a good look at Georgia last weekend having played several singles and doubles matches against the Bulldogs at the UT Fall Invite in Knoxville, Tenn. The Gamecocks won two of seven singles contests and claimed one of the three doubles matchups.
“We’re looking forward to seeing Georgia again to see if we can do a little better than we did last time,” Epley said. “In some of the spots, they were doing some things better than us, and we need to try to match that going into this weekend.”
Overall, Megan Davies and Mia Horvit led South Carolina at its first fall event with a 2-1 record in singles play for the weekend, and they teamed up for a 2-1 doubles record. Elise Mills and Emma Shelton also picked up singles victories in Knoxville, both against Georgia, and Shelton teamed with Silvia Chinellato for a doubles triumph over a duo from Vanderbilt.
