University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldogs Open Fall Tournament Season Friday
September 15, 2011 | Women's Tennis
Sept. 15, 2011
ATHENS-----The Georgia women's tennis team opens the fall tournament season Friday in Alpharetta at the Georgia Tech Invitational.
A three-day round-robin event of singles and doubles, the Bulldogs will face student-athletes from Oklahoma State, Yale and the host Yellow Jackets at the Windward Lake Club. Friday's slate begins with singles matches at noon with doubles to follow around 2:30 p.m. On Saturday, doubles matches will be put on first at 2 p.m. and then singles is scheduled to start around 3:30 p.m. On Sunday, singles will start at 9 a.m. and then doubles around 11:30 a.m.
Georgia returns eight letterwinners for the 2011-2012 season highlighted by All-Americans Chelsey Gullickson and Kate Fuller. Gullickson, the 2010 NCAA singles champion, is a senior and six-time All-American while Fuller enters her sophomore year. Gullickson is preseason ranked No. 9 in singles and No. 15 in doubles with senior Nadja Gilchrist. Gilchrist is ranked No. 43 in singles. Also in the singles rankings, Georgia has first team All-SEC sophomore Maho Kowase (No. 56) and second team All-SEC sophomore Lilly Kimbell (No. 123). In the doubles rankings, Fuller and freshman Lauren Herring check in at No. 20. Herring, a native of Greenville, N.C., is one of the nation's top newcomers. She is preseason ranked No. 7 among freshmen/newcomers.
Head coach Jeff Wallace enters his 27th season at the helm. The Bulldogs finished the 2011 season ranked No. 8 after going 19-5 and making their 25th straight NCAA appearance.
"We've got a team this year with some experience, and they understand college tennis and what it takes to be successful," said Wallace. "We're looking forward to getting back out on the courts, playing some matches and learning what we need to work on more with our game. Everyone has the ability to make a jump in their game."
Wallace added that the Bulldogs would employ several different doubles combinations during the fall before settling on what the likely tandems will be when the team dual match season begins in January.
"We have a way we like to play doubles no matter who you are playing with, and we'll take some time to practice and play with different teams," Wallace said. "It is good to eventually partner up so you can gel as a team, but we'll experiment a little and figure out who are strongest combinations are going to be in the spring."
A quick look at the rest of the field finds Yale has one player ranked in singles (Elizabeth Epstein, (No. 92) while Tech has five players with singles ranking plus its top doubles team of Jillian O'Neil and Caroline Lilley are No. 6.
