April 9, 2015
The Georgia Tech women’s tennis team (10-7, 6-4 ACC) finishes out its home portion of its schedule this weekend, hosting #49 Boston College on Friday at 4 p.m. and #12 Virginia on Sunday at noon at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex. The first 100 fans on Sunday at the match against Virginia will receive a free t-shirt.
Scouting the Opponents
#49 Boston College (13-8, 7-4 ACC)
Series: Georgia Tech leads 8-2
Boston College enters Friday’s match having won five of their past six ACC matches. Two Eagles are in the ITA Rankings — Jessica Wacnik at #97 and #101 Asiya Dair. Wacnik and Lexi Borr make up the #51-ranked doubles duo. The Yellow Jackets were on an eight-match winning streak against the Eagles that was snapped last season when Boston College won, 4-3, in Boston.
#12 Virginia (15-4, 8-2 ACC)
Series: Virginia leads 22-13
Virginia heads to No. 2 North Carolina on Friday before traveling down to Atlanta to face the Jackets. Virginia has won seven-straight against Georgia Tech including two wins last year — UVA defeated GT, 4-2, during the regular season and 4-1 at the ACC Tournament. The Cavaliers boast three ranked singles players – #2 Julia Elbaba, #36 Stephanie Nauta and ##37 Danielle Collins. Virginia also has three ranked doubles pairings – #31 Skylar Morton and Cassie Mercer, #87 Nauta and Maci Epstein and #89 Epstein and Marie Faure.
Upsets
The #35 Yellow Jackets most recently defeated #23 Northwestern, 5-2, at home on Wednesday. The win marked Georgia Tech’s fourth victory against a higher ranked opponent in the past six matches, which included victories against #32 Notre Dame, #17 Duke and #34 Virginia Tech.
Hourgian, Woodard 17th in the Nation
The Yellow Jacket duo of freshman and junior are the #17th ranked doubles duo in the country. The two have gone 5-1 in conference play, 7-1 on court one and 3-0 on court two this season. Hourigan and Woodard have beaten four nationally ranked opponents including #21 Quinn Gleason/Monica Robinson from #32 Notre Dame, #3 Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies from #22 Clemson, #25 Gabrielle De Santis/Sandy Niehaus from #27 Ohio State and #39 Alicia Barnett/Erin Larner from #23 Northwestern.
Moving Back Up
The Yellow Jackets dropped down to as low #57 in the ITA rankings as after starting the season out ranked #18. Tech has been slowly climbing back up the rankings, checking in at #35 this week, after picking up some impressive ACC wins. The Yellow Jackets have won five out of the past six matches, including wins against #17 Duke, 4-3, #34 Virginia Tech, 7-0 and #23 Northwestern,5-2.
Ranked Opponents
Out of Georgia Tech’s 17 dual match opponents, 14 have been ranked in the top 75 of the ITA’s weekly rankings. The Yellow Jackets have faced five top-20 teams, including the #1 team, North Carolina, and #3 Georgia. Tech’s next two opponents are ranked – #49 Boston College and #12 Virginia.
Georgia Tech has picked up seven wins against ranked opponents -#17 Duke, #23 Northwestern, #31 Tennessee, #32 Notre Dame, #34 Virginia Tech, #38 Columbia and #59 USF.
ACC Standings
The #36 Jackets currently are eighth in the ACC standings after competing in 10 ACC matches thus far. #2 North Carolina sits atop the conference standings with a 11-0 record. #17 Miami, #22 Duke and #12 Virginia are tied for second with 8-2 records #20 Clemson and #31 Notre Dame are tied for third with 8-3 records.#49 Boston College is in seventh with a 7-4 mark in conference play and #35 Georgia Tech sits in eighth with a 6-4 mark in ACC competition.
Who clinched the match?
In Georgia Tech’s 10 wins this season, each Yellow Jacket has clinched the deciding point at least once. Junior , freshman Johnnise Renaud and freshman Paige Hourigan have each clinched a team-best two matches. At the number three singles spot, Prokhnevska clinched the wins against #59 South Florida and NC State. Renaud’s win on court one against Wake Forest clinched the victory on the way to a 7-0 Tech victory and her win against Virginia Tech also secured a 7-0 victory. Hourigan won the deciding match against #31 Tennessee on court one and #23 Northwestern on court two.
Sophomore also clinched a match on court three, defeating her opponent against #18 Columbia. Junior win on court four against Louisville secured Georgia Tech’s victory. Freshman clinched the first match of her career after defeating her opponent on court five in singles against #32 Notre Dame. Her three-set win broke a 3-3 tie in the match. Against #17 Duke, sophomore clinched the first match of her career, for her win on court five broke a 3-3 tie and helped the Jackets upset the #17 Blue Devils.
Dominant in Doubles
The Yellow Jackets have won the doubles point in 12 of 17 matches and are 8-4 when winning the doubles point. The Jackets are 2-3 when losing the doubles point and came back to defeat #32 Notre Dame and #17 Duke after dropping the doubles point. Tech won the doubles point against #38 Columbia, #59 USF, #31 Tennessee, NC State, Louisville, Wake Forest, #34 Virginia Tech and #23 Northwestern on its way to winning the match. The Jackets won the doubles point against #19 Oklahoma State, #3 Georgia, #67 Florida State and #22 Clemson, but fell in those matches.
Jackets in the Rankings
The Yellow Jackets slid up one spot in this week’s ITA rankings to #35. The Jackets have two singles players and one doubles duos ranked.
Freshman checks in at #56 in the singles rankings this week. Hourigan is 8-3 on court two in singles and is 10-5 in dual match play. She is 5-4 against nationally ranked players. Freshman is the #104 ranked singles player. Renaud is 8-9 so far this spring and has played mainly on court one, gong 6-7.
Hourigan and junior moved up to #17 in the doubles rankings after taking down the #3-ranked doubles pair from Clemson. Hourgian and Woodard are 10-1 on both courts one and two and have defeated four nationally ranked opponents.
Next Up
The Yellow Jackets wrap up the regular season on the road, heading to Pittsburgh on Friday, April 17 at 5 p.m. and then traveling to Syracuse on Sunday, April 19th at 11 a.m.
