March 23, 2010
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Georgia Tech sophomore Irina Falconi has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Week for the fourth time this season after defeating two fellow ranked players and leading the Yellow Jackets to a pair of major non-conference wins.
Falconi helped the 36th-ranked Yellow Jackets to a pair of upset victories over No. 12 Georgia and No. 17 Vanderbilt. The Jupiter, Fla., native finished off No. 13 Chelsey Gullickson of Georgia in straight sets with a 7-5, 6-0 victory, and Tech downed the Bulldogs by a 5-2 score. She followed it up by dominating Vanderbilt’s 38th-ranked Catherine Newman, 6-2, 6-1, to help the Jackets come from behind to earn a 4-3 win. She is now 13-1 in singles this dual match season.
“Chelsey and Catherine are definitely top class opponents,” Falconi said. “I think that the focused work that I have put in on and off the court is paying off and helping me long term. My focus improves every match and the ability to learn and grow from every match that I play in has helped with my consistency.”
The top-ranked Falconi also teamed with Lynn Blau to earn a pair of doubles victories over the weekend.
