March 9, 2005
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech’s 17th-ranked women’s tennis team will host ACC newcomer Virginia Tech Thursday in the first home conference match of the season for the Yellow Jackets. The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the Bill Moore Tennis Center on the edge of Georgia Tech’s campus.
This week the Yellow Jackets (7-2) moved to 17th in the rankings, which ties Georgia Tech’s highest ranking ever, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). The last time the Yellow Jackets were ranked 17th in the polls was on Match 31, 2002. Georgia Tech has been in the top-25 for four consecutive weeks after first appearing at No. 23 on February 15th.
The Jackets are coming off a pair of wins against No. 18 Clemson and No. 47 South Alabama and are facing the conference’s only unranked team in Virginia Tech, who stands at 4-6 this spring.
“All of our matches are big,” said Tech head coach Bryan Shelton. “And being an ACC match, we want to go out and keep the momentum that we’ve gained over the last two matches. We have had a great week at practice and are again going to go in focused on doubles play.”
The 7-2 start this season for the Yellow Jackets marks the best start in the last two years after beginning the 2003 season with a 12-2 mark. That year, the Yellow Jackets recorded six match victories over teams ranked in the top-50 with two of those being ranked in the top-25. The Yellow Jackets have already posted five wins against top-50 teams this spring and one against a top-25 team in 18th-ranked Clemson and still have four matches to play against top-25 teams.
The Jackets’ Kristi Miller has played atop the singles and doubles lineup all season and is currently ranked 24th in singles and 20th in the nation with partner Alison Silverio. She stands just one win shy of tying the record for most singles win in a season, as she is currently 29-6 in singles action this year. Silverio and Kelly Anderson have both recorded 16 singles victories this season, and Anderson currently stands tied for sixth for most singles wins in a career, with 63 in her three years as a Yellow Jacket. Miller and Lyndsay Shosho are tied for the most dual-match victories this season (6), while Silverio has recorded a 5-4 record in the spring.
Anderson, Kacie Anson and Dasha Potapova have all recorded four dual-match victories in Tech’s nine matches this spring, and Potapova stands at 15-8 in her first year as a Yellow Jacket and has cracked the rankings for the first time this season, appearing at No. 94 this week, while Anson has a 13-7 mark in her third year. Rounding out the 2004-05 team are freshmen Esther van Londen and Whitney McCray, who have combined for two singles and 10 doubles victories in the spring.
The Yellow Jackets will begin Thursday’s match with doubles play at 2 p.m., with singles action to follow 10 minutes after the conclusion of doubles, and the team hopes to have the stands full of the white and gold.
Following the match, the Yellow Jackets will travel Tobacco Road to face Wake Forest on Saturday and NC State Sunday before returning to the state to take on the third-ranked Georgia Bulldogs next Wednesday. Livestats for the match will be available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
