May 12, 2004
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech’s women’s tennis team, ranked 40th in the latest ITA poll with an 11-10 overall record, faces second-seeded Alabama in the first round of the NCAA Regional. Match-play begins Friday at 10 a.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia, with the match between the Sixth-seeded Georgia Bulldogs and Samford to begin immediately following the conclusion of the Jackets’ match. The first-round winners will then face each other Saturday at 5 p.m. to determine which team advances to the Championship round, which will also be held in Athens, Ga.
After earning an at-large bid, the Jackets have now been selected five consecutive years to postseason play, as head coach Bryan Shelton has led his teams to the tournament in all five years that he’s been at the helm of the program. Prior to his hiring, Georgia Tech had never been a part of the NCAA Championship.
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TECH TIDBITS
* In 2004, Georgia Tech recorded eight wins over ranked opponents, including four over teams ranked in the top 50, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
* The Jackets boast a pair of ranked singles players in Lyndsay Shosho (67) and Kelly Anderson (87), while the team is ranked 40th overall.
* Shosho and Anderson were both named to the all-ACC team in 2004
* Shosho was selected for her first NCAA Individual Championship this season, marking the second straight year that a Yellow Jacket will compete in the tournament.
YELLOW JACKETS IN NCAA PLAY
* The Jackets have now advanced to their fifth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championship and hold a 3-4 record in tournament play.
* Georgia Tech owns a 3-1 record in first-round matches of the tournament, with its only loss coming to No. 30 UCLA in 2001.
* Tech is still looking for its first second-round victory, as it stands at 0-3 in Regional final matches.
* This marks the first time that Tech has played in a Regional in Georgia. The Jackets have traveled to the west coast three times and visited Kentucky in their only other NCAA appearance
* Georgia Tech has never faced Alabama, Georgia or Samford in NCAA play. In fact, of the six opponents that the Jackets have played in the NCAA’s (Tech has played UCLA twice), only two schools (Michigan and Kentucky) are from east of the Mississippi River.
2004 HONORS AND AWARDS
* 2004 marked the first time since 1989 that two or more players earned all-ACC honors. Sophomores Lyndsay Shosho and Kelly Anderson both earned the honor for the first time in their careers after Anderson was named the ACC Rookie of the Year last season.
* The women’s tennis team was named the ITA National Sportsmanship Award winner for the month of March. The Jackets were nominated by Minnesota coach Tyler Thompson, saying “It has been my experience that Coach Shelton’s teams compete with great love of competition while placing a high premium on fine sportsmanship. Bryan and his staff are always understanding and rational about the ‘big picture,’ not getting too worked up about a relatively minor incident that may test one’s patience.”
* Kelly Anderson was named the 2004 recipient of the prestigious Bobby Dodd Scholarship which recognizes Georgia Tech’s top returning scholar athlete. Anderson currently owns a 3.92 GPA in Management.
* Maria Nieto was named to the Georgia Tech all-academic team and earned the Georgia Tech Student-Athlete Advisory Board Spotlight Award while Sekita Grant was a recipient of the ACC’s Top Six for Service award.
