May 10, 2001
ATLANTA — The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s tennis teams will be in action this weekend as they begin play in the NCAA Tennis Championships.
The 26th-ranked Yellow Jacket men (16-6) travel to Athens, Ga., where they will take on the 37th-ranked Arizona Wildcats (12-9) in a first-round match at 9:00 a.m. Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets, making their fourth NCAA Championships appearance in the last five years, take a young but experienced team to Athens. Sophomore Roger Anderson, the 2000 Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year and a 2001 All-ACC selection, will play at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles. He is 12-9 in singles play in dual matches and, along with partner David Wright, is ranked 45th in the nation in doubles play with a 13-7 record in dual matches.
Sophomore Stephen Moros made an immediate impact on the Georgia Tech squad after transferring from Texas A&M. He won the ACC Flight 4 Singles Championship after posting a 14-6 dual match record, including a 7-1 mark in ACC competition. He also teamed with senior Sergio Aguirre to earn ACC Flight 3 Doubles runner-up status, recording a 7-2 mark in dual matches.
Two freshmen — Joao Menano and Alex Navinkov — have also been impact players in their inaugural year. Menano compiled an impressive 10-3 singles record in dual matches and teamed with senior Romain Coirault to capture the ACC Flight 2 Doubles Championship with a 12-8 mark in dual matches. Navinkov leads the Yellow Jackets with a 22-8 singles record, which includes a 10-4 mark in dual matches.
The 46th-ranked Yellow Jacket women (11-11) travel to Fresno, Calif., where they will take on No. 30 UCLA (7-17) Saturday at 1:00 p.m. EDT.20 Georgia Tech is making its second-straight appearance in the NCAA Championships after earning its first-ever berth last year.
Like the men’s squad, the Georgia Tech women’s tennis team features a youthful roster. With just two seniors, the Yellow Jackets have relied upon their young players in 2001.
Sophomore Jaime Wong earned All-ACC honors for the second consecutive year after posting a 29-10 overall singles record and a 19-12 mark in dual matches. Her 29 wins give her the second-highest single-season total in program history, just one shy of Bobbi Guthrie’s school record set in 1997-98.
Guthrie, who is joined by senior transfer Debbie Reynolds as the lone seniors on the squad, is Tech’s all-time leader in doubles wins with 73. Junior Laura Ozolins has also turned in a consistent performance throughout the year, winning the ACC Flight 6 Singles Championship with a perfect 6-0 record in conference play.
The second rounds of both the men’s and women’s championships will take place on Sunday. The winner of the Georgia Tech-Arizona men’s match will face the winner of the first-round match between No. 58 Furman and No. 1 Georgia on Sunday at noon. The winner of the Georgia Tech-UCLA women’s match will advance to play the winner of the Fresno State-Cal State Northridge match at 4:00 p.m. EDT.
