Jan. 24, 2013
THE FLATS – The 22nd-ranked Georgia Tech women’s tennis team will travel to Lincoln, Neb., for the ITA Kick-Off Weekend Jan. 26-27 as the Yellow Jackets try to earn their eighth straight trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships to be held Feb. 8-11 in Charlottesville, Va.
The Yellow Jackets will face No. 18 Notre Dame at 11 a.m. ET Saturday in their opening match. Tech will face either No. 17 Nebraska or No. 23 Tennessee on Sunday. The consolation match will be at 11 a.m. ET and the championship match will be at 2 p.m. ET. Live scoring for the Notre Dame match can be seen here.
Georgia Tech won the ITA National Team Indoor title in 2007 and 2008.
Tech will be heading back to the Midwest for the second straight weekend after playing in the Michigan Invitational last weekend.
“I think the Michigan Invitational was so key for us because of how evenly matched all the teams were,” head coach Rodney Harmon said. “When we played there, Michigan was preseason 16, Mississippi was 18, we were 20 and USF was 43. We were all basically in the same range and matches were really competitive. It’ll be the same thing this weekend at Nebraska, we’re all ranked there together. We all equally have a shot to win based on how each player performs and how they’re able to handle pressure and win key points. It’s an opportunity for us to go and compete. It’ll be a tremendous experience for our young players.”
Georgia Tech owns a 5-2 series edge over Notre Dame but the Irish won last year’s meeting 4-3 in South Bend. Tech has won both matches when the two schools have played on neutral courts. The Jackets have never faced Nebraska. Tennessee has won two of the three matches all-time with Georgia Tech.
Tech won four doubles matches, including a sweep of Ole Miss, and six singles matches at last weekend’s Michigan Invitational. Senior Elizabeth Kilborn picked up her third ranked win of the year when she downed USF’s Ecaterina Vasenina in three sets.
Freshman Kendal Woodard leads the Jackets with a 9-7 record this year. Kilborn and freshman Megan Kurey each have eight wins this year.
“The Michigan Invitational was great for us to play quality matches against great opponents,” Harmon said. “We used it as that and a chance for our doubles team to get more experience, our singles players to play some really good players that have different styles of play and get adjusted to playing indoors. For us it was great preparation for this weekend and we look forward to going out to Lincoln and playing some really good tennis.”
Fans are encouraged to follow Georgia Tech women’s tennis on Twitter, @GT_WTEN, and like the Yellow Jackets on Facebook, GTWomensTennis, for an inside look at the program.
–RamblinWreck.com–
