2019 Season Review

Overview of the Season

The 2019 Georgia women's tennis team put together one of the best seasons in the program's history. The major list of team accomplishments included the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, the Southeastern Conference regular season crown, and runner-up finishes at the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. Individually, sophomore Katarina Jokic won the ITA National Fall Singles Championship, forecasting her successful Spring, which ended with being the National Player of the Year, Honda Award finalist, NCAA singles runner-up, and the No. 1 final singles ranking. The year marked the 34th under Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace, who was named ITA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year, as he led the Bulldogs to the program's sixth national team title, 17th SEC championship, and fourth appearance in the NCAA finals.

The NCAA No. 1-seeded Bulldogs defeated Michigan in the new Super Regional format at home to earn a trip to the NCAA final site in Orlando at the USTA National Campus. The Tennis Channel provided unprecedented coverage of the NCAAs bringing the exciting ending of the season to the forefront for Bulldog fans. It marked Georgia's 33rd-straight NCAA Tournament and second quarterfinals appearance in a row. The Bulldogs erased three deficits against Vanderbilt in the Elite Eight before junior Elena Christofi clinched the 4-3 win, sending Georgia to the semifinals. The Final Four match boiled down to two third sets, but this time freshman Meg Kowalski prevailed for the 4-2 victory over Duke. The program record 28th win of the season advanced the Bulldogs to their fourth-ever trip to the NCAA Final. Stanford avenged their ITA Indoors loss to Georgia in the NCAA final to end Georgia's season.

A day later, Jokic and junior Marta Gonzalez were back on the court for the NCAA Singles Championships with seedings that earned All-America honors. For Gonzalez it registered as her first-career award, while it was Jokic's second in as many years. Jokic, of Novi Grad, Bosnia, proceeded to maneuver through the 64-player field to reach the finals – her second singles grand slam appearance of the season. In three of the six days of individual competition, she also was playing doubles with freshman Lourdes Carle, finishing as quarterfinalists − good for All-America honors. The singles final represented Jokic's 15th total match in nine days, which registered as the most among any student-athlete during the team and individual competition. Jokic fought the No. 1-seed into three sets before finishing NCAA Runner-Up.

Prior to the NCAAs, Georgia completed its second-ever undefeated regular season, and the program's third undefeated conference slate to secure the SEC title outright. It marked Georgia's 10th SEC regular season championship and first since 2013. The Bulldogs suffered their season's first loss in the SEC Tournament Final, a 4-3 decision to South Carolina, in College Station, Texas. The loss snapped Georgia's single season win streak at 23 matches − a program record.

The bar was set high on the season after the No. 5-seeded Bulldogs made an exhilarating run to become the ITA National Team Indoor Champions in February. It was then that the Bulldog faithful first experienced the team's flare for dramatics when it used three consecutive 4-3 finishes to win its first national title since 2002. In the quarterfinals, Christofi faced match point down 1-5 in the third set, before storming back to tie the team score at 3-all, which led to Carle's clinch on her birthday. The first meeting of the season between Georgia and Stanford came in the semifinals with Jokic using a third set to send the Bulldogs to the finals. En route to her Most Outstanding Player award for the tournament, Jokic outlasted her UNC opponent in the third-set tiebreaker to seal the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. It marked Georgia's fourth title in the ITA National Indoors, joining the 1994, 1995, and 2002 teams.

After Seattle, Georgia took the top spot in the ITA team rankings for much of the season and played to collegiate tennis' final dual match and individual singles match.

Looking Ahead
Of the nine Bulldogs on the 2018-19 Georgia roster, eight are scheduled to return including a total of five upperclassman. After a season of no seniors, Christofi and Gonzalez will fill that role in the upcoming season. The three returning rising juniors include Jokic, Wolff, and Morgan Coppoc. All three freshmen, Kowalski, Carle and Alee Clayton, plan to return to Athens for their sophomore year.
New in the fall will be Lea Ma, the nation's No. 3-ranked recruit according to Tennis Recruiting Network. The Dix Hills, N.Y. native trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. and is ranked No. 29 worldwide in International Tennis Federation Juniors.

On-Court Honors
•   Oracle/ITA National Fall Singles Championships: Champion, Katarina Jokic
•   ITA National Team Indoor Championships: Team Champions
•   ITA National Team Indoor All-Tournament : Katarina Jokic, No. 1 singles; Vivian Wolff, No. 4 singles; Meg Kowalski, No. 6 singles; Katarina Jokic/Meg Kowalski No. 3 doubles; Katarina Jokic, Most Outstanding Player.
•   Southeastern Conference: Regular Season Champions
•   SEC All-Tournament : Vivian Wolff, No. 4 singles; Elena Christofi, No. 5 singles.
•   All-SEC: For the second year in a row, Georgia had the most contingents in the conference with six honorees. Freshman of the Year: Meg Kowalski; First Team: Katarina Jokic, Marta Gonzalez, Vivian Wolff; Second Team: Elena Christofi, Lourdes Carle; All-Freshman Team: Lourdes Carle, Meg Kowalski; Community Service Team: Meg Kowalski
•   ITA Southeast Region: Rookie of the Year, Meg Kowalski; Coach of the Year, Jeff Wallace
•   NCAA Team Championships : Team Runner-Up
•   NCAA All-Tournament : Katarina Jokic, No. 1 singles; Vivian Wolff, No. 4 singles; Meg Kowalski, No. 6 singles; Katarina Jokic and Lourdes Carle No. 1 doubles.
•   NCAA Singles Championships : Runner-Up, Katarina Jokic
•   ITA All-America: Singles: Katarina Jokic, Marta Gonzalez; Doubles: Katarina Jokic/Lourdes Carle

Academic Honors
•   Google Cloud Academic All-District Women's At-Large First Team: Elena Christofi
•   Spring SEC Academic Honor Roll: Elena Christofi, Finance; Marta Gonzalez, Mechanical Engineering; Annette Goulak, Biology; Katarina Jokic, Management; Vivian Wolff, Management
•   J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Honor Roll Fall 2018: Presidential Honors - Elena Christofi; Dean's List - Annette Goulak, Meg Kowalski; Honor Roll - Lourdes Carle, Morgan Coppoc, Katarina Jokic, Vivian Wolff

Players Mentioned

Lourdes Carle

Elena Christofi

Morgan Coppoc

Marta Gonzalez

Annette Goulak

Alee Harris

Katarina Jokic

Meg Kowalski

Vivian Wolff

University of Georgia Athletics