No. 21 Gamecocks Bounce Back in Doubleheader Sweep
Feb. 26, 2017
COLUMBIA, S.C. — No. 21 South Carolina women’s tennis took two wins Sunday, Feb. 26 in the team’s first home doubleheader at the Carolina Tennis Center. The Gamecocks (8-2) claimed a 6-1 win over No. 39 William & Mary (4-7) and a 4-0 triumph over Charlotte (6-3).
The Gamecocks faced William & Mary in the morning session of Sunday’s doubleheader. South Carolina battled for the doubles point, but the Tribe eventually took the point with 6-3 win at court three and a 6-4 win on court one.
South Carolina stormed into singles play, taking 4-0 leads in three of the first sets on the way to taking first-set wins on four of six courts, losing two in in 7-5 tiebreaks.
Two freshmen contributed first, with No. 100 Mia Horvit the first to get off the court as she scored a 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 1 to pull the Gamecocks even at 1-1. Silvia Chinellato added to score, battling early in both sets to find her rhythm and put up a 6-3, 6-4 win.
The bottom of the lineup clinched the match for the Gamecocks. Hadley Berg’s record stayed perfect, improving to 9-0 in singles play and increasing the Gamecock lead to 3-1 with her 6-3, 7-5 win. Brigit Folland displayed her senior leadership, fighting back from a 5-2 deficit to clinch the match for South Carolina with a 6-1, 7-5 triumph on court six.
The Gamecocks played out the match, taking three-set wins on courts two and three to make a 6-1 final score.
After a short break, South Carolina return to action to face Charlotte. The Gamecocks made quick work of the doubles point, with the freshmen duo of Chinellato and Horvit, and veteran duo of Berg and Dailey taking 6-1 victories.
In singles, the bottom of the lineup led the Gamecocks to victory with courts four, five and six only giving up one point between them.
Rachel Rohrabacher put her point on the board first, blanking her opponent 6-0, 6-0 on court five. Hannah Templeton wasn’t far behind with a 6-1, 6-0 win on court six, increasing the lead to 3-0.
Folland clinched the match for the second time in the day with her 6-0, 6-0 victory in the number four spot for a 4-0 final.
Quoting Coach Kevin Epley
“I’m pleased with this weekend as a foundation to go into SEC play next week. We saw some really good play, Mia really had a good weekend she played Hayley Carter, a senior at UNC. We played North Carolina really close as a team, we just couldn’t step up enough in some of the spots we needed to win. I felt like we rebounded well today against William & Mary, they came out feisty today. But one thing is clear for the weekend, that we really need to focus on doubles this week. We did not have a good weekend of doubles but I think we feel pretty good overall going into the SEC weekend. For now we’re just going to take care of some injuries, get a few good days of practice and head on out to A&M and LSU.”
Up Next
The Gamecocks return to action to open their SEC slate with three road matches. No. 21 South Carolina will take on No. 22 Texas A&M Friday, March 3, No. 28 LSU on Sunday, March 5 and No. 1 Florida Saturday, March 11 before returning home to face No. 24 Tennessee Friday, March 17.
For the latest information on South Carolina women’s tennis follow the Gamecocks on Twitter and Instagram, at gamecockwtennis.
