Women’s Tennis Heads North for Two Tournaments

North Carolina – South Carolina women’s tennis will play in two concurrent tournaments this weekend with half of the team attending the College Ranked Spotlight in Cary, N.C., from Sept. 22-25, and the other half attending the Charlotte Fall Invite in Charlotte, N.C., from Sept. 23-25.

Seniors Ayana Akli, Ana Cruz, and Elise Mills will be participating the Ranked Spotlight along with sophomore Sarah Hamner. The tournament will begin with doubles on Thursday evening at 5 p.m. at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center and the Dail Outdoor Tennis Stadium on the campus of NC State. Play will then move to the Cary Tennis Park in Cary, N.C., for the remainder of the event.

Friday and Saturday will both consist of two rounds of singles play and Sunday will consist of one doubles session, along with the singles championship and consolation matches. Play on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will begin at 9 a.m. each day.

Along with South Carolina and host NC State, other participating schools include Arizona State, Auburn, Duke, ETSU, Kansas, Miami, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Princeton, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UCF, Southern California, and Virginia. Across all participating schools, 37 ranked singles players will be in attendance.

The attendees will be divided into two compass draws of 32 players each for singles. The top-16 players were awarded seeds with Hamner taking the No. 2 seed and Akli earning the No. 16 seed.

Doubles will be paired in pods of four with each team scheduled to play two matches Thursday evening and one match on Sunday morning. Hamner and Akli will play in Group B while Mills and Cruz will play in Group G.

The Gamecocks will send sophomores Chloe Narboni and Misa Malkin to the Charlotte Invite along with freshmen Annie Jennings and McKenna Schaefbauer. The Charlotte Invite will run Friday through Sunday with play beginning each day at 9 a.m. Friday and Saturday will consist of two rounds of doubles followed by one round of singles while Sunday will consist of one round of doubles and one round of singles.

Live stats will not be available for this event, however live streaming will be available for Courts 1-6 at this link. Participating schools include Clemson, Davidson, ETSU, Iowa, North Carolina, and Penn State.

Spectators will receive free admission and parking will be available in the West Deck. Parking will be free beginning one and a half hours before matches begin.

For all the latest South Carolina women’s tennis information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockWTennis).