April 30, 2014
Sophomores Megan Kurey and Kendal Woodard of the Georgia Tech women’s tennis team have earned an at-large bid to the 2014 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships to be held May 21-16 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. The duo will be the number six seed in the doubles field.
“We are very happy and pleased for Megan and Kendal that they are seeded at number six at the NCAA Tournament,” head coach Rodney Harmon said. “They had a really great year. They played number one for us and won a ton of matches. They won the southeast regional and the national indoors title. They were both All-ACC as well.”
Kurey and Woodard are Tech’s 10th doubles team to earn a bid to the NCAA Doubles Championship. The duo is currently ranked as the #6 doubles team in the nation. Tech’s No. 1 doubles pair produced a 12-5 record this spring and defeated nine nationally ranked foes. Kurey and Woodard are 7-3 in their last 10 matches.
The tandem is 26-9 overall this year. After playing as Tech’s No. 1 doubles team as freshmen, Kurey and Woodard carried their success into the summer, winning the doubles title at the 2013 ITA National Collegiate Summer Circuit Championships. The win in August guaranteed them an automatic bid into the doubles main draw of the ITA Women’s All-American Championships.
At the All-American Championships, the tandem fell in the doubles main draw to #15 Whitney Kay and Caroline Price of UNC. Kurey and Woodard then defeated three-straight ranked opponents to make it to the consolation bracket finals, including two opponents ranked in the top five, #2 Kate Fuller and Silvia Garcia of Georgia and #4 Hermon Brhane and Whitney Ritchie of Oklahoma. The pair fell to #3 Brooke Bolender and Emina Bektas of Michigan in the finals. The winner of the consolation bracket received an automatic bid to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.
After just missing out on the automatic bid to the national indoor championships, the duo continued to work hard, preparing for the ITA/USTA Southeast Regional Championships, which would be held at the University of Georgia Oct. 18-21. Kurey and Woodard defeated four-straight opponents to advance to the doubles finals and face #50 Lauren Herring and Maho Kowase of Georgia. Kurey and Woodard cruised to an 8-2 victory, winning the second regional doubles title for Georgia Tech women’s tennis.
The regional championship secured the two a bid to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships where they competed against the top competition in the nation. Kurey and Woodard made Georgia Tech history by winning the 2013 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships doubles title Kurey and Woodard captured the national indoor doubles title on Nov. 10, 2013 after defeating Louisville’s Julia Fellerhoff and Rebecca Shine in the championship match.
The tandem went 14-4 in the fall and owned an impressive 7-3 record against nationally ranked opponents. The duo finished off the season on a nine-match winning streak, including three straight victories during national indoors on their way to the national doubles title.
Kurey and Woodard currently hold the #6 spot in the nation in the doubles rankings after debuting this season at the #4 spot. In the Feb. 11th poll, the pair was ranked as the #1 doubles team. The tandem is 1121-5 together this spring and had won 14-straight doubles matches together, before a loss to Georgia snapped their winning streak.
Georgia Tech will open the team portion of the NCAA Championships May 9 against the No. 41 Purdue Boilermakers in a 11 a.m. ET match at the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center on Vanderbilt’s campus in Nashville, Tennessee. The winner of each of the 16 first and second round team sites will advance to the University of Georgia for the final four rounds of the 2014 NCAA Championships, May 15-20.
–RamblinWreck.com–
