Feb. 20, 2005
ATLANTA – For Immediate Release Georgia Tech Women’s Tennis February 20, 2005
ATLANTA–Dasha Potapova and Kristi Miller earned singles victories but it wasn’t enough to overcome a tough Harvard team as the 18th-ranked Crimson (6-1) handed No. 23 Georgia Tech (5-1) its first dual-match loss of 2005, 5-2, Sunday afternoon at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.
“Harvard was just too good today,” said Tech head coach Bryan Shelton. “I thought that they came up with some solid play, including fewer unforced errors, and really outplayed us today.”
The Crimson began the afternoon by winning a pair of doubles matches at the Nos. 1 and 2 positions to take a 1-0 match lead into singles play. Elsa O’Riain and Stephanie Schnitter teamed together in the No. 1 slot to down the nation’s 16th-ranked duo of Miller and Alison Silverio, 9-8 (3), while Harvard’s Melissa Anderson and Celia Durkin defeated Tech’s Kelly Anderson and Lyndsay Shosho, 8-6.
Tech’s Potapova and Kacie Anson recorded the Yellow Jackets lone doubles victory with an 8-5 win over Eva Wang and Preethi Mukundan at the No. 3 position.
Potapova defeated 93rd-ranked Mukundan, 6-4, 6-0, at No. 3 singles to put the Yellow Jackets on the scoreboard, before 18th-ranked Miller capped the afternoon with a come-from-behind win over No. 104 O’Riain at the No. 1 slot. After dropping the first set, 3-6, Miller earned an 8-6 tiebreaker win in the second set and then won a super-tiebreaker third set, 1-0 (6), for her 28th singles victory of the season.
Harvard recorded victories at the Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 6 singles positions for the final 5-2 margin in the match.
“I hope that we can take this match and learn from it,” said Shelton. “We will go over our matches and make some adjustments before we take off for Nashville next weekend. Overall, I’m very excited though, because we are playing very competitive and have met some good competition in our first few matches. Today wasn’t our day, but hopefully the next one will be.”
Georgia Tech will return to action next Saturday when it travels to Nashville to take on No. 6 Vanderbilt at noon.
No. 18 Harvard 5, No. 23 Georgia Tech 2
Singles
No. 1 No. 18 Kristi Miller (GT) def. No. 104 Elsa O’Riain (H), 3-6, 7-6 (6), 1-0 (6)
No. 2 No. 123 Celia Durkin (H) def. No. 79 Kelly Anderson (GT), 6-1, 6-3
No. 3 Dasha Potapova (GT) def. No. 93 Preethi Mukundan (H), 6-4, 6-0
No. 4 Alexis Martire (H) def. Alison Silverio (GT), 6-3, 6-2
No. 5 Eva Wang (H) def. Lyndsay Shosho (GT), 6-2, 6-1
No. 6 Melissa Anderson (H) def. Esther van Londen (GT), 6-2, 6-4
Doubles
No. 1 O’Riain/Stephanie Schnitter (H) def. No. 16 Miller/Silverio (GT), 9-8 (3)
No. 2 Anderson/Durkin (H) def. Anderson/Shosho (GT), 8-6
No. 3 Potapova/Anson (GT) def. Wang/Mukundan (H), 8-5
