University of Georgia Athletics
University of Georgia
ITA All-American Qualifying
Bulldogs Duos Eliminated In Qualifying
October 05, 2016 | Women's Tennis
PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIF.-----Both Georgia duos fell short in their bid to advance to the doubles main draw of the Riviera All-American Championships Wednesday.
Auburn's 27th-ranked tandem of Alizee Michaud and Taylor Russo, seeded fourth, defeated Georgia junior Mariana Gould and freshman Eleni Christofi 8-3 in the second round of the qualifying draw. The Bulldog duo is now 3-1 this fall. Michaud earned All-America honors last year for the Tigers and finished ranked ninth nationally in doubles with Pleun Burgmans.
Georgia senior Caroline Brinson and junior Kennedy Shaffer dropped a tight match to the Oregon duo of Alyssa Tobita and Shweta Sangwan 8-6. The Bulldog pair jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never trailed until the Ducks took a 6-5 advantage. Shaffer held her serve down 7-5, but Oregon came right back with a hold to take the match and advance. The Brinson/Shaffer team is 5-2 this fall.
"Although we didn't get the results we wanted, today could end up being beneficial for our doubles teams," said Georgia associate head coach Drake Bernstein. "Two good teams from Oregon and Auburn showed us where we need to improve. Hopefully, today will encourage us to get better on the court, particularly on serve and returns."
Brinson and Shaffer now will focus on the main draw of singles, which begins Thursday. They earned their spots based on last year's results and ITA preseason ranking. Shaffer led the team last year with a 32-8 singles record followed by Brinson who finished with a 31-11 mark. This fall, Brinson and Shaffer are 3-0 in singles.
Selected main draw singles matches will be streamed on a subscription-based site, FloTennis.com. The link to watch those matches is: http://bit.ly/2c2yH8d
The ITA/Riviera All-America event dates back to 1983 when Georgia's Lisa Spain captured the first singles title, beating Heliane Steden (Southern California) in the final. A Bulldog has reached the final four other times, most recently in 2009 (Chelsey Gullickson).
