Nov. 4, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. – The Georgia Tech women’s tennis team began the first day of its fall season finale in impressive fashion, winning nine of 12 total matches at the Schwartz Tennis Challenge hosted by the Purdue Boilermakers at the Schwartz Tennis Center on the Purdue campus in West Lafayette, Ind.
The Yellow Jackets got off to a slow start, dropping two of three doubles matches to the Illinois Fighting Illini. Tech’s top doubles team and sixth-ranked pair of seniors Caroline Lilley and Jillian O’Neill topped the Illini side of Marisa Lambropoulos and Allison Falkin, 8-5, but that would be the only one of the three doubles matches against Illinois the Jackets would win.
Head coach Bryan Shelton’s team quickly re-grouped and swept the host Boilermakers in three doubles matches. The Jackets’ team of senior Lynn Blau and junior Elizabeth Kilborn defeated Purdue’s 46th-ranked team of Mara Schmidt and Jennifer Rabot, 8-6, in the number one slot. In her second doubles match of the day, O’Neill teamed with sophomore Alex Anghelescu to post a dominating 8-0 win over the Boilermakers’ Gisella Pere and Imogen Golder.
Completing the three-match sweep of Purdue was the Tech team of sophomore Muriel Wacker and senior Viet Ha Ngo with a tough 8-6 win over the Boilermakers’ Lynda Xepoleas and Daniela Vidal.
Tech finished the first day of the tournament playing Illinois in singles. O’Neill, ranked No. 21, battled past the Illini’s Lambropoulos 6-4, 3-6, 12-10. The 69th-ranked Lilley defeated Illinois senior Amy Allin in two sets, 6-2, 6-3. The Jackets’ Ngo, ranked No. 44, earned a hard-fought 6-3, 6-7 (2), 10-6 win over U of I’s Falkin.
Blau, ranked No. 124, added her second win of the day with a tough three-set win over Illinois’ Breanne Smutko, 3-6, 6-4, 10-4. Wacker capped the first-day Tech victories with another three-set win, this one over the Illini’s Misia Kedzierski, 5-7, 6-4, 10-8.
Fans are encouraged to follow Georgia Tech women’s tennis on Twitter, @GT_WTEN, and like the Yellow Jackets on Facebook, GTWomensTennis, for an inside look at the program.
Doubles vs. Illinois
Lilley/O’Neill (GT) def. Lambropoulos/Falkin, 8-5
Abajian/Smutko (ILL) def. Kilborn/Blau, 8-6
Allin/Kopinski (ILL) def. Anghelescu/Minor, 8-3
Doubles vs. Purdue
Blau/Kilborn (GT) def. Rabot/Schmidt, 8-6
O’Neill/Anghelescu (GT) def. Pere/Golder, 8-0
Wacker/Ngo (GT) def. Xepoleas/Vidal, 8-6
Singles vs. Illinois
O’Neill (GT) def. Lambropoulos, 6-4, 3-6, 12-10
Lilley (GT) def. Allin, 6-2, 6-3
Ngo (GT) def. Falkin, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 10-6
Kopinski (ILL) def. Minor, 6-3, 6-3
Blau (GT) def. Smutko, 3-6, 6-4, 10-4
Wacker (GT) def. Kedzierski, 5-7, 6-4, 10-8
— RamblinWreck.com —
