April 6, 2008
ATLANTA – Noelle Hickey earned wins at No. 4 singles and No. 2 doubles to lead second-ranked Georgia Tech (16-4, 8-1 ACC) to a 6-1 win over No. 51 Virginia Tech (14-9, 2-7 ACC) Sunday afternoon at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.
“Overall this was a great week for our team,” said Georgia Tech head coach Bryan Shelton. “We were able to get three more conference wins and continue to establish ourselves in the top of the league.
Hickey and Whitney McCray picked up the Jackets’ only doubles win of the day, defeating Yasmin Hamza and Jessica Long, 8-4, at the No. 2 spot before Virginia Tech’s third doubles tandem of Inga Beermann and Holly Johnson picked up a tiebreaker victory over Kirsten Flower and Amanda McDowell to give the Hokies the doubles point.
“The girls did a good job of changing momentum quickly in singles,” Shelton added. Virginia Tech is a much improved team and really forced us to come out and play our best singles today.”
Hickey tied the match at 1-1 by breezing to a 6-1, 6-0 win over J.J. Larson at the No. 4 singles spot before fourth-ranked McDowell gave the Jackets a one-point lead with a 6-0, 6-2 victory against No. 120 Hamza at the second singles position.
A 6-1, 6-2 win by sixth-ranked Kristi Miller atop the singles lineup pushed the score to 3-1 before 33rd-ranked Maya Johansson clinched match point with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Johnson at the sixth singles position.
McCray pushed the score to 5-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win at the No. 3 position before No. 39 Kirsten Flower finished off the singles sweep with a 7-6, 6-0 win at the fifth spot.
Following this weekend’s matches, Tech will host Boston College and Maryland in the last two regular season matches for the Yellow Jackets. Tech will be participating in Ace for the Cure, to benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, against the Eagles on Saturday before the Jackets honor their two seniors, Kristi Miller and Whitney McCray, Sunday prior to the match against the Terrapins.
Miller and McCray have been a part of an NCAA Championships, two ITA National Team Indoor Titles, three ACC Championships and 88 team victories for the Yellow Jackets.
Tennis Match ResultsVirginia Tech vs Georgia TechApr 06, 2008 at Atlanta, Ga.
#2 Georgia Tech 6, #51 Virginia Tech 1
Singles competition 1. #6 Kristi Miller (GT) def. Inga Beermann (VT) 6-1, 6-2 2. #4 Amanda McDowell (GT) def. #120 Yasmin Hamza (VT) 6-0, 6-2 3. #36 Whitney McCray (GT) def. Jessica Long (VT) 6-4, 6-3 4. Noelle Hickey (GT) def. J.J. Larson (VT) 6-1, 6-0 5. #39 Kirsten Flower (GT) def. Jessica Brouwer (VT) 7-6 (5), 6-0 6. #33 Maya Johansson (GT) def. Holly Johnson (VT) 6-2, 6-0
Doubles competition 1. Brouwer/J.J. Larson (VT) def. Miller/Sasha Krupina (GT) 8-5 2. McCray/ Hickey (GT) def. Hamza/ Long (VT) 8-4 3. Beermann/ Johnson (VT) def. Flower/ McDowell (GT) 9-8 (5)
Match Notes: Virginia Tech 14-9, 2-7 ACC; National ranking #51 Georgia Tech 16-4, 8-1 ACC; National ranking #2 Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (4,2,1,6,3,5)
