April 29, 2014
THE FLATS- The #20-ranked Georgia Tech women’s tennis team (13-9) will face #41 Purdue (12-10) In the NCAA Championship first round on May 9 at the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center on Vanderbilt’s campus in Nashville, Tennessee.
This will be the 15th overall and 15th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance for the Yellow Jackets. Tech has advanced to the Sweet 16 seven times and won the 2007 national title. The NCAA Championships will begin May 15 in Athens, Ga. at the University of Georgia.
“We are happy to be going to the NCAA Regionals,” head coach Rodney Harmon said. “We have a very tough match to play against a very, very good Purdue team out of the Big Ten. Our team is going to go play up at Vanderbilt, a place where we got to play in the fall to which we know the courts. It’s a very tough regional. All four of the teams are good teams. We are going to be practicing hard trying to get ready to play our best against Purdue.”
This will be the first meeting in the history of the program between Georgia Tech and Purdue. Purdue went 12-10 overall this year and 8-5 in the Big Ten.
Also in the Nashville region are host Vanderbilt (19-6) and Murray State (16-5). Vanderbilt enters the NCAA tournament ranked #10 and the tournaments overall nine seed. Murray State is 16-5 on the season and won the Ohio Valley tournament.
This will be the second time during the 2013-14 season that the Jackets will travel to Nashville to Vanderbilt. Tech competed in the June Stewart Invitational that was hosted by the Commodores in October. The Jackets also faced Vanderbilt in the beginning of the season at the ITA Kickoff Weekend in the Nebraska regional finals. The Commodores edged the Jackets, 4-3, during the meeting.
Vanderbilt holds the lead in the overall record against the Jackets, 12-5. While Vanderbilt won the last two matches, the Jackets won the previous three matches from 2009-11. Georgia Tech holds a 1-0 record against Murray State, even though the teams have not yet met on the court. On March 3, 1990 Murray State forfeited the match against the Jackets.
Tech heads into the tournament after winning six of their last nine matches, including a 4-3 upset of #1 Duke. The Yellow Jackets defeated #59 Virginia Tech, 4-0, in the first round of the ACC Tournament before falling to eventual tournament-champions, #7 Virginia, 4-1.
Senior Muriel Wacker has won a team-high 16 singles match this dual match season and is 12-2 in conference play. Sophomore Megan Kurey is 12-6 in dual matches and is 4-1 when playing on court two. Freshman Rasheeda McAdoo is on a six-match winning streak and has gone 8-5 at the number four spot.
In doubles, #6-ranked Kurey and Kendal Woodard are 12-5 at the number one spot and they went 8-3 in ACC play. Sophomore Natasha Prokhnevska and Wacker are 10-9 on court two and own a 3-2 record against nationally ranked opponents. The freshman duo of McAdoo and Alexa Anton-Ohlmeyer are 10-6 on court three and are 6-4 in their last 10 matches.
The sophomore doubles duo of Megan Kurey and Kendal Woodard are ranked #6 in the nation in the doubles rankings after debuting this season at the #4 spot. In the Feb. 11th poll, the pair was ranked as the #1 doubles team. The tandem is 12-5 together this spring and had won 14-straight doubles matches together, before a loss to Georgia snapped their winning streak. Kurey and Woodard are 7-3 in their last 10 matches.
Kurey and Woodard won the 2013 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships doubles title in November. The tandem is 26-9 together this year and 9-8 against nationally ranked opponents.
Both Woodard and Kurey garnered All-ACC honors this season. Woodard was named to the All-ACC First Team for the second consecutive year. Kurey was honored with her first conference award of her career after being named to the All-ACC Second Team.
–RamblinWreck.com–
