No. 8 NC State Defeats Gamecocks 6-1

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The No. 14 South Carolina women’s tennis team dropped a 6-1 decision to No. 8 NC State on Wednesday at Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia, S.C. The Gamecocks now sit at 2-1 this season, while Wednesday marked the first contest of the year for the Wolfpack.

Doubles Recap

The Gamecocks fell behind 2-0 on all three courts to get the day underway. At two, Allie Gretkowski and Emma Shelton fought back to a 3-2 deficit against No. 16-ranked Jaeda Daniel and Adriana Reami, but the Wolfpack duo fought off the Gamecocks to win by a 6-3 count.

At three, Silvia Chinellato and Ana Cruz faced a 5-2 margin against Lana Mavor and Amelia Rajecki. After closing the difference to 5-3 and getting to 40-40 in the ninth game, NC State came away with the deciding point to put the Wolfpack ahead 1-0 heading to singles play.

South Carolina’s top team of No. 30 Mia Horvit and Megan Davies recovered from their early 2-0 deficit to the nation’s No. 2-ranked duo of Anna Rogers and Alana Smith to snag a 5-3 advantage. Play was suspended at 15-15 in the ninth game once the doubles had been decided.

Singles Recap

The Wolfpack took five of the six singles matches with Rogers pulling off the first one at the top position over No. 34 Horvit. Rogers, ranked one spot below Horvit, took the first set 6-2 and after trailing 2-1 in the second set, she ran off five straight games to put NC State ahead 2-0. About a minute later, No. 23 Smith finished off her contest with No. 30 Davies on court two by scores of 6-3, 6-3.

At the No. 5 singles spot, Gretkowski dropped the first set to Lexi Keberle by a 6-3 tally, but she bounced back in the second set and had a 4-2 lead. Keberle then claimed five of the next six games to secure a 6-3, 7-5 victory that clinched the match for the Wolfpack.

Up 4-0 with the team win in hand, the Gamecocks continued to fight on courts three, four and six. No. 93 Shelton and Daniel split sets just after Keberle’s win and played a super tiebreak for the third set. Shelton got off to a hot start with a 4-0 lead in the tiebreak and never looked back in taking the 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-5) win.

Court six finished next with Elise Mills suffering a tough loss in two tiebreaks to Rajecki, 7-6(3), 7-6(5). Mills faced a 5-2 deficit in the first set before storming back to eventually push it to a tiebreak. At four, Chinellato grabbed the first set from No. 38 Reami but could not hold the lead and lost by a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 count.

Notes

• The Gamecocks are now 13-3 in the all-time series with NC State and have dropped the last two meetings versus the Wolfpack. NC State’s win today marked its first in Columbia after entering the contest 0-8. The two teams had not played a match in Columbia since 2003.
• Emma Shelton picked up the Gamecocks’ lone win against NC State for the second season in a row. Last year, she defeated Lexi Keberle in three sets at the No. 4 position.

Up Next

South Carolina heads to Atlanta this weekend to participate in the ITA Kickoff Weekend and will face host No. 12 Georgia Tech on Saturday at 10 a.m. The other two teams competing in the event are No. 6 Duke and No. 22 Michigan.