NCAA History
NCAA/ITA Indoor Team Champions |
Champions: 1994 • 1994 (Indoor) • 1995 (Indoor) • 2000 • 2002 (Indoor) • 2019 (Indoor)
Finalists: 1987, 2019
Semifinalists: 1989-91-95-98, 2001-02, 2009, 2015
33 NCAA Appearances - 84-31 record
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Georgia's NCAA Individual Champions |
NCAA Champions
1984 Singles: Lisa Spain
1994 Singles: Angela Lettiere
2010 Singles: Chelsey Gullickson
NCAA Finalists
1992: Shannan McCarthy (singles)
1997: Anderson/Catlin (doubles)
1999: Catlin/Castellano (doubles)
2000: Catlin/Grey (doubles)
2012: Gilchrist/Gullickson (doubles)
2014: Herring/Kowase (doubles)
2019: Katarina Jokic (singles)
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The Bulldogs have made 33 straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament and own an 84-31 mark, including 11 trips to the Final Four (nine semifinals, four times to the finals and won two national titles).
The University of Georgia women's tennis program reached the highest level of success in 1994 and again in 2000, joining the elite class of national champions. The Bulldogs captured the national championship on their home courts at Henry Feild Stadium in 1994 and then won the 2000 team title in Malibu, Calif.
Both times they defeated long-time nemesis Stanford for the title. In 1994, it was only fitting considering the Cardinal had ousted Georgia in six of its first seven NCAA appearances. In 2000, Georgia dethroned the defending national champion Cardinal and halted its 48-match winning streak with a 5-4 victory. Prior to the 1994 national title, Georgia's best showing came in its debut in 1987. That year, the Bulldogs reached the finals, falling to Stanford, 5-1.
Individually, the Bulldogs boast three national champions. Lisa Spain, Georgia's first All-American, captured the NCAA singles title in 1984. Angela Lettiere captured the 1994 national singles title a decade later. In 2010, sophomore Chelsey Gullickson captured the crown in Athens.
Meanwhile in 1992, Shannan McCarthy was the runner-up to Florida's Lisa Raymond. In 1994, the All-America tandem of Lettiere and Michelle Anderson was the nation's top-ranked doubles team and top seed at the 1994 NCAAs, but a foot injury sidelined Anderson. Consequently, the duo was forced to withdraw from the tournament, but they had accumulated enough big wins to remain No. 1 in the final rankings.
Similarly, in 1998, Georgia's top-ranked and top-seeded doubles tandem of Vanessa Castellano and Marissa Catlin were forced to withdraw when Catlin contracted mononucleosis a week before the championships. That duo finished the season ranked third.In 1999, the All-American duo of Catlin and Castellano posted one of the greatest seasons in history, winning two Grand Slam titles (Clay and Indoor) and reaching the finals in the other two (All-American and NCAAs). They were ranked No. 1 the entire regular season and at season's end. In 2000, the tandem of Catlin and Lori Grey clinched the NCAA team title and then a few days later advanced to the doubles final. They also finished the season ranked No. 1.
Grey and Agata Cioroch became the fifth Georgia duo to end the season ranked first in the nation in 2003. They reached the 2003 NCAA quarterfinals in doubles while Cioroch made it to the semifinals of the singles. In 2005, Shadisha Robinson and Caroline Basu gave the Bulldogs their sixth duo to end the season at No. 1 in the ITA rankings as the pair went a school record 28-4.
In 2014, the Bulldogs (24-5) earned the NCAA Tournament's No. 1 overall seed for the first time in school history. Lauren Herring and Maho Kowase reached the NCAA Doubles Final.
Again in 2019, Georgia earned the NCAA Tournament No. 1 overall seed and made it to the program's fourth appearance in the NCAA Finals. Katarina Jokic with the No. 2-seed in the NCAA Singles Championships finished as the runner-up.
Georgia has served as an NCAA first/second round site 16 times since 1999, owning a perfect record of 36-0. Georgia played host to the NCAA Women's Tennis Championships Round of 16-Finals site in 1994, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2017. Since 2006, the NCAA Championships for men and women have been held at one site.
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