Jan. 22, 2012
ATLANTA – Behind five singles victories and the doubles point the No. 13 Georgia Tech women’s tennis team earned a 6-1 victory over No. 68 Memphis Sunday inside the Bill Moore Tennis Center.
The Yellow Jackets swept doubles play as Jillian O’Neill and Alex Anghelescu overturned their ranked opponent for the second straight match with an easy 8-4 win over the No. 41 ranked team of Alyssa Hibbard and Tiffany Welcher. Both Lynn Blau and Elizabeth Kilborn (8-1) and Muriel Wacker and Christina Ngo (8-5) also earned the doubles victory to give Tech the early 1-0 lead.
We knew it was going to be a tough match today,” said assistant coach Alison Silverio, “Memphis is a great team and they came out firing on all cylinders. Liz and Lynn did a great job of getting on top of their match in the doubles and provided a spark for the doubles point. We were able to have a strong doubles finish which gave us a lot of momentum heading into singles play.”
O’Neill’s success continued into her singles play as she took down Courtney Collins 6-2, 6-1. O’Neill’s victory was quickly followed by Kilborn’s 6-3, 6-1 upset over No. 51 ranked Stefanie Mikesz to give the Jackets a 3-0 advantage.
Ngo (ranked No. 106) dropped her match 3-6, 1-6 to No. 98 ranked Mariya Slupska as Memphis earned their first and only point of the day.
After falling behind early, newcomer Jasmine Minor responded quickly to earn the 7-5 first set victory. Minor went on to win her match 6-2, netting the winning point for the Jackets. “Jill did a great job of staying on top of her opponent and starting things off for us with her singles match victory,” continued Silverio. “With Jazz [Jasmine Minor], as a freshman to get that kind of experience of actually clinching the match is really neat. All of the girls competed very well today and that is something that we have been talking about this season, going out there and outcompeting everyone.”
Wacker also earned the victory over her Tiger counterpart with a 6-3, 6-1 score while Blau rounded things out with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory at No. 5 singles in the only three set game on the day.
“Coming off of a tough loss yesterday to Georgia,” explained Silverio, “we talked in the locker room about character and dealing with adversity and I think these girls showed a lot of character to go out there and compete and win against a good team in Memphis.”
The Jackets will return to action on Friday, January 27 at 2 p.m. against crosstown rival and No. 58 Georgia State at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.
