March 26, 2004
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech returns to ACC action this weekend after taking two weeks off to play Georgia, Ohio State, Vanderbilt and Furman in home matches at the Bill Moore Tennis Center. The Jackets play host to No. 62 Virginia Saturday at 12 p.m. and will face No. 60 Maryland Sunday at 11 a.m.
“These are big matches for us this weekend,” said Tech head coach Bryan Shelton. “We will hopefully pick up where we left off with our last match, which was a good one against Furman. We didn’t have everyone at full strength, but I think that we played really well and we’re playing very well right now.”
The Jackets are looking to avenge last year’s loss in the ACC Tournament against the Cavaliers and are led by a pair of sophomores at the top of the lineup in Lyndsay Shosho and Kelly Anderson. Both players are ranked this week, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, with Shosho earning the highest ranking of her career at No. 43, while Anderson stands 82nd.
“When we lost to Virginia last year at ACC’s, it really didn’t sit well with us,” said Shelton. “We were a little bit disappointed with our effort so we definitely want to come back this year and pick up where we left off.”
Virginia holds a 14-7 lead in the series after dropping last year’s regular-season match to Tech, 4-3, in Charlottesville. The Jackets haven’t lost a regular-season match to the Cavaliers or the Terrapins in Shelton’s tenure, and the last time that Tech dropped a regular-season match to Virginia occurred in 1998 while the Jackets haven’t lost a match to Maryland since 1999. Maryland holds a 14-12 edge in the series with the Yellow Jackets.
“This is an important weekend for us,” said Shelton, “because it really sets us up for the rest of our conference matches. It would be nice to be 4-0 in conference play after this weekend, and that is one of the goals that we are setting for ourselves.”
Following this weekend’s matches, the Jackets will return to action when they host Clemson in the home finale of the season on April 1.
