May 16, 2012
Yellow Jackets Back In Sweet 16
Georgia Tech returns to the NCAA Championships Sweet 16 for the seventh time overall and second straight year. All seven Yellow Jacket appearances in the Sweet 16 have come under head coach Bryan Shelton.
Three of the previous six trips to the round of 16 have come when the NCAA Championships were being held in Athens, Ga.
Individual Bids
Senior Jillian O’Neill and sophomore Alex Anghelescu each earned individual bids to the NCAA Championships to be held at the Dan Magill Tennis Center following the NCAA team championship. O’Neill was selected as an at-large bid to the singles championship, and was tabbed as a top 16 seed. O’Neill is 30-12 in singles play this year, has defeated 12 ranked opponents and ranked No. 11 in the latest poll. Her 30 wins lead the Yellow Jackets and she needs just two more victories to break into the Georgia Tech top 10 for singles wins in a year.
Anghelescu will team with O’Neill in the NCAA doubles championship. O’Neill and Anghelescu have played almost exclusively from the No. 1 position of Tech’s doubles lineup. The duo has a 13-10 record, including seven wins of ranked foes, and is ranked No. 23 in the latest poll.
Success In Athens
Georgia Tech has had great success in NCAA Tournament action held on the home courts of their rival. Tech is 5-3 in tournament play at UGA. Among the wins are the four that led to the 2007 national title.
Five Year Anniversary
This year marks the five year anniversary of Georgia Tech’s 2007 national championship team, the Institution’s first NCAA title, which was one in Athens.
Digging a little deeper, one will find some interesting similarities between the 2007 and 2012 NCAA Tournaments.
In 2007, Tech beat an SEC team (Kentucky) to advance to the Sweet 16 (GT topped Alabama 4-3 to advance this year. The Yellow Jackets beat Cal (this year’s Sweet 16 foe) in the semifinals and UCLA (this year’s No. 1 ranked team) in the finals. Even the calendar looks a little familiar. The 2007 semifinals and final were held on May 21 and 22, just as they will be this year.
Captain Clinch
Seven different Yellow Jackets have clinched a Tech win this spring. Senior Caroline Lilley and junior Elizabeth Kilborn have each secured Tech victories five times this spring. Lilley was the heor against Alabama and Kilborn clinched wins over Maryland and Miami in the ACC Tournament and against Oklahoma State in the NCAA First Round.
Senior Christina Ngo and sophomore Alex Anghelescu each have two. Senior Lynn Blau and freshman Jasmine Minor have each secured victory once for Tech in 2012.
