May 9, 2006
ATLANTA – The sixth-ranked Georgia Tech women’s tennis team begins play in the 2006 NCAA Tournament this weekend when they host the first and second rounds at the Bill Moore Tennis Center May 12-13.
The Yellow Jackets will begin play Friday at 11 a.m. when they host the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions. The second match of the day will feature Tennessee and Penn at 2 p.m., with the winner of the two matches meeting Saturday at noon with a chance to advance to the NCAA Sweet-16, which begins May 18 in Stanford, Calif.
For ticket information to the 2006 Atlanta Regional, call 1-888-TECH-TIX, or visit www.ramblinwreck.com. For directions and other information pertaining to the regional, click here .
The Yellow Jackets earned the No. 6 national seed in the 2006 NCAA Championships and is the top-seeded Atlantic Coast Conference team for the second-straight season. Four other ACC schools earned national seeds, including Miami, Fla. (7), Duke (8), North Carolina (9) and Clemson (15), while a record-high nine conference schools earned bids to the tournament.
Georgia Tech is playing in its seventh-consecutive NCAA Tournament and will be hosting the first and second rounds for the second-straight season.
Tech enters the postseason with a 21-5 record after winning its second-consecutive ACC Championship with tournament wins against NC State, Clemson and Miami. The Jackets defeated the Wolfpack, 4-0, in the quarterfinals before posting 4-1 scores against the Tigers and Hurricanes in the semifinals and finals, respectively.
The Yellow Jackets are led this season by sophomore All-American Kristi Miller, the nation’s top-ranked singles player and a part of the country’s 10th-ranked doubles team. The Marysville, Michigan native currently has the top two marks in the Tech record books for most singles wins in a season, with a record-high 42 singles victories last year while she has 36 already in 2006.
Miller became the first All-American in the program’s history a year ago when she was selected as one of the top-16 national seeds in the 2005 NCAA Singles Championship, and has repeated the honor in 2006 when she was named the No. 2 seed in the 2006 NCAA Singles Championships.
Senior Lyndsay Shosho will join Miller in representing the Institute in the 2006 Doubles Championships, becoming the second doubles team in school history to compete in the postseason event. Shosho holds the school record for most doubles wins in a season, with 32 in 2006, bypassing Miller and Alison Silverio’s previous mark of 28, set in 2005.
Shosho is also ranked 63rd in the nation in singles, according to the latest Fila/ITA Tennis Rankings, while Silverio stands 65th. Tarryn Rudman and Kelly Anderson round on the Yellow Jackets in the rankings, standing 96th and 110th, respectively, in the national polls.
Despite being unranked in singles and doubles this season, senior Kacie Anson, sophomore Whitney McCray and rookie Christy Striplin have played significant roles for the Jackets in 2006. Striplin currently stands third on the team for most dual-match wins in 2006, with a stellar 18-3 record in the spring, including two key victories for the Jackets in the ACC Championships. The Birmingham, Ala. native has won over 80 percent of her matches during her rookie campaign, with a remarkable 26-6 singles record.
McCray has played anywhere from No. 4 through No. 6 in the singles lineup and has been a steady performer with Anderson at the No. 2 position in doubles play. The Decatur, Ga. native is 10-2 at the No. 5 singles positing, and has posted a 24-10 overall record in singles in 2006. She and Anderson went 3-0 in the ACC Championships and are currently riding a six-match winning streak heading into NCAA’s.
Anson, playing in her final NCAA Championships, has come on strong in her doubles play this season, teaming with Silverio at the No. 3 position, and the duo has won three of their last four matches, including posting a pair of key victories for the Jackets at the ACC Championships. The duo is 14-7 this spring, while posting a stellar 10-4 mark against ACC opponents.
2006 Accolades:
All-American
All-ACC
Bobby Dodd Scholarship Award Recipient
Peach of an Athlete Winner
Georgia Tech Special Recognition
Georgia Tech All-Academic Team
