Feb. 8, 2007
ATLANTA – The top-ranked Georgia Tech women’s tennis team heads to the Chicago area this weekend for a trio of matches against No. 6 Northwestern, No. 25 William & Mary and the University of Illinois.
The Yellow Jackets, who moved to No. 1 in the rankings for the first time in the history of the program this past week, will face the Tribe and Fighting Illini at the University of Illinois Saturday and Sunday before heading to Evanston to meet Northwestern Monday at 4 p.m. ET.
Saturday’s match, which begins at 3 p.m. ET, will be the fourth meeting between the two schools with William & Mary holding the 3-0 edge. The last matchup came on January 31, 2004 at the Michigan Invitational, with the 14th-ranked Tribe pulling out a 4-3 win over the Yellow Jackets in the first match of the season.
The next day the Jackets will face the unranked Illinois Fighting Illini in the first meeting between the two squads.
Tech will wrap up the weekend with a repeat of last year’s NCAA Round of 16 matchup Monday afternoon, playing at Northwestern in the fourth meeting between the two schools. Northwestern is 3-0 against Tech in history. Livestats for Monday’s match will be available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
The Jackets have received strong doubles play from the junior tandem of Whitney McCray and Kristi Miller and the rookie duo of Kirsten Flower and Amanda Craddock, as the two doubles teams are now 3-1 on the spring.
Flower is pacing the Yellow Jackets in singles, boasting a 4-0 record in dual matches, while No. 64 Craddock is 3-0 and 95th-ranked sophomore Christy Striplin has gone 3-1. Miller is Tech’s highest-ranked singles player, as the Marysville, Mich. native stands at No. 15 in the rankings, while Flower is 25th, McCray stands at No. 52, and Alison Silverio rounds out the standings at No. 82.
Overall, the Jackets have won 16 singles and seven doubles matches through the first four matches of the season.
