Women's Tennis . February 9, 2021

Gamecocks Conclude Non-Conference Play Wednesday Hosting Furman

South Carolina Takes on the Paladins at 3 p.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s No. 18-ranked women’s tennis team is set to host Furman in its final non-conference match of the season Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Carolina Tennis Center.

The Gamecocks enter the match at 3-3 after taking off the previous week from competition, while the Paladins are 3-4.

Last Time Out

South Carolina took a 4-1 loss at the hands of No. 14 Virginia on Jan. 30 in its last matchup. The Cavaliers marked the Gamecocks’ fourth consecutive opponent from the ACC, and the loss ended South Carolina’s four-match unbeaten streak against Virginia.

The Gamecocks picked up the first victory in doubles thanks to Ana Cruz and Allie Gretkowski at the three spot, but Virginia answered back quickly on court two with Sofia Munera and Natasha Subhash registering a 6-2 triumph over Silvia Chinellato and Emma Shelton. On the deciding court at the top of the lineup, the Gamecocks’ Mia Horvit and Megan Davies had a 4-3 advantage on Rosie Johanson and Emma Navarro. The Cavaliers then claimed the next two games to take a 5-4 advantage and after Horvit and Davies tied things up at 5-all, Johanson and Navarro got the next two games to seal the doubles point for Virginia by a 7-5 score.

The Cavaliers took control of the singles by winning the first sets on courts two, three, five and six. Amber O’Dell responded from her loss in doubles by taking down Cruz at six singles 6-3, 6-1 to push the Cavaliers’ lead to 2-0. Johanson made it 3-0 after she dropped Shelton by a 6-4, 6-3 score on court three, but the Gamecocks answered back at No. 4 singles. Chinellato managed to hold off Hibah Shaikh 6-4, 6-2 to pick up her third win in a row. At the top position, Horvit breezed through her first set against Navarro with a 6-1 win. The match then completely turned in Navarro’s favor, as she went on to win the next two sets 6-0, 6-1 to give Virginia its third win of the season.

Gamecock Notables

Fifth-year senior Silvia Chinellato has currently won three singles matches in a row coming against Georgia Tech, Clemson and Virginia. All three wins have come in straight sets, and Chinellato leads the Gamecocks in dual match victories with a 4-2 record.
Freshman Allie Gretkowski picked up her first career win against a ranked player versus Georgia Tech by downing No. 123 Gia Cohen 7-5, 7-5.
Megan Davies’ current doubles ranking of No. 29 with Mia Horvit is the highest of her career.
The Gamecocks’ highest ranked doubles tandem is currently Silvia Chinellato and Emma Shelton at No. 20. They finished 2019-20 with the team’s top mark at 13-4 and were ranked as high as No. 12 nationally. Chinellato and Shelton went 3-3 in the fall together and are 1-1 in the Gamecocks’ last two matches after combining with some other players the first four matches this spring.
South Carolina was scheduled to face Michigan in the consolation match of the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 24, but the Michigan athletics department announced late the night before it was putting a pause on competition for all of its athletics teams due to updated protocols needing to be in place for the new variant of COVID-19.
Mia Horvit is closing in on history this spring, looking to join the 100-win club in singles. She currently owns a 90-41 record in singles and is in ninth place all-time. She needs just two more to tie Brigit Folland (2013-17) for eighth place. Only three Gamecocks have reached 100 victories with Rita Winebarger (1984-88) leading the way at 127 followed by Ana Marija Zubori (2006-10) with 109 and Lynn-Yin Tan (1998-02) at 103.
Head coach Kevin Epley is in his ninth season with the Gamecocks and will look to record his 300th career win this season. Epley currently has a 290-128 mark in 17 seasons as a head coach at three schools. Epley has amassed a 139-69 record as South Carolina’s head coach and boasts an impressive 62-33 record in regular-season SEC play. He led the Gamecocks to their first SEC title in 2019 when South Carolina captured the SEC Tournament after finishing the regular season with a 12-1 record.
The Gamecocks ended the 2020 season riding a five-match winning streak that saw their overall record move to 8-4. They began SEC play with a 4-0 record after wins against Auburn, Alabama, Texas A&M and LSU. Georgia was the only other undefeated team in league play with a 3-0 record when the season was lost due to the pandemic.
Both Mia Horvit and Silvia Chinellato elected to use the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to play one more season after their senior years were cut short by COVID-19. Horvit is a two-time All-American and has been a member of the All-SEC Team three years in a row. She was named the UTR/ITA National Player of the Week just days before the 2020 season was postponed and later canceled. Chinellato was off to a hot start in SEC play last season with a 4-0 singles record and a 3-1 mark for doubles. She was ranked as high as No. 12 in the nation for doubles alongside Emma Shelton last spring.
Since the SEC began crowning a regular-season and tournament champion in 2000, only four teams have won the SEC Tournament. South Carolina became the fourth in 2019, joining Florida, Georgia and Vanderbilt as the only teams to win the event.
South Carolina has won 20 or more matches each of the past three full seasons, a first in school history. In total, the Gamecocks won 64 matches from 2017 to 2019.
Consistency is the name of the game, and South Carolina has certainly been one of the most consistent programs in the country for decades. Currently, the Gamecocks have made the NCAA Tournament 25 seasons in a row. Overall, South Carolina has competed in 29 of the 38 all-time NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the quarterfinals three times (1982, 2009, 2019) and the round of 16 nine times (1982, 1983, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2009, 2017, 2018, 2019). Carolina has also finished the season ranked among the top-25 a total of 25 times.

About Furman

The Paladins have played a challenging slate thus far in 2021, and are coming off a big 5-2 win against No. 16 Wake Forest on Sunday in Greenville. The Demon Deacons are the highest ranked team Furman has defeated in its history. The day before, the Paladins defeated Alabama by a 4-3 margin in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Furman’s other win this season came on the road to VCU in 7-0 fashion. The Paladins opened the dual match season with a 4-3 loss to Auburn and then dropped a 5-2 decision to Tennessee. Furman has also lost to Mississippi State (6-1) and Duke (5-2).

The Furman Series

South Carolina has a 35-6 edge in the all-time series with Furman and has won all 35 consecutively. The Paladins won the first six contests between 1974 and 1976. The Gamecocks’ streak of victories began March 30, 1977, and has continued since the last meeting Jan. 15, 2017. Carolina took the 2017 matchup in Greenville by a 6-1 score and beat the Paladins 7-0 the last time they visited Columbia in 2016. South Carolina has a 20-3 all-time record versus Furman on its home courts.

Full Furman Series Results