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Top 10 Women’s Battle & A Look Ahead to Tuesday’s Rankings

by | Feb 3, 2015 | Blog

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With the Illinois/Notre Dame match getting postponed due to bad weather the only action on the courts today was on the women’s side in Charlottesville where #10 Virginia hosted #9 Georgia. 

Virginia happily welcomed back its top 2 players (Elbaba, Collins) who had been out ill with the flu but Georgia came out strong and swept all 3 doubles courts to grab the early 1-0 lead.  Each team claimed 3 1st sets but while Virginia was able to close out each of its 3 in straight sets, Georgia was getting more pushback.  With Virginia leading 3-1, Georgia’s Lauren Herring was up 7-5, 5-2 on Julia Elbaba at #1, UGA’s Ellen Perez led Danielle Collins 4-1 in the 3rd at #2, and the match at #6 singles had just split sets and was going to a 3rd set.  So it appeared that the match would come down to that 3rd set at #6 however the defending NCAA singles champion, Danielle Collins, had a different idea and she took 4 straight games over Perez and actually served for it up 5-4.  After Perez broke to get it back on serve at 5 all, Collins would break right back and would then serve it out 40-30 to put the Hoos back in the winner’s circle and bump their record up to 4-1; Georgia would fall to 3-2.


Virginia recap
Georgia recap

#10 Virginia 4, #9 Georgia 2
Monday, Feb. 2, 2015
Boar’s Head Sports Club
Doubles
1. Herring/Perez (UGA) def. #22 Elbaba/Nauta (UVA) 6-3
2. Garcia/Shaffer (UGA) def. #11 Mercer/Morton (UVA) 6-3
3. Brinson/King (UGA) def. Collins/Epstein (UVA) 6-2

Order of Finish: 3,1,2

Singles
1. #19 Lauren Herring (UGA) def. #1 Julia Elbaba (UVA) 7-5, 6-4
2. #42 Danielle Collins (UVA) def. Ellen Perez (UGA) 3-6, 6-1, 7-5
3. #16 Stephanie Nauta (UVA) def. Kennedy Shaffer (UGA) 6-4, 6-3
4. Skylar Morton (UVA) def. No. 83 Silvia Garcia (UGA) 6-3, 7-6 (10-8)
5. Maci Epstein (UVA) def. No. 91 Hannah King (UGA) 6-3, 6-1
6. Cassie Mercer (UVA) vs. Caroline Brinson (UGA) 6-7, 6-2, 2-2
Order of Finish: 5,3,4,1,2
 ______________________________________________________________________
Tuesday will bring us the release of the next set of rankings from the ITA and we should see the 1st set of rankings of the year from the Division 1 Men’s Coaches as well.  I’d expect that USC, Oklahoma, and Virginia will be 1, 2, and 3 in some order but it will be interesting to see who comes in at 4-10 since #4 UCLA, #5 Ohio State, #6 North Carolina, #7 Georgia, and #8 Illinois all lost last week.  Below is how each of the ITA Top 15 fared last week.


1.  USC – defeated #17 Florida 5-2 and #7 Georgia 4-0 in Athens.
2.  Oklahoma – defeated #19 Wake Forest 5-2 in Winston Salem.
3.  Virginia – idle
4.  UCLA – lost to #7 Georgia 4-2 and #17 Florida 4-3 in Athens
5.  Ohio State – lost on the road at #15 Texas A&M 4-3 and defeated #27 Kentucky 4-0
6.  North Carolina – lost on the road at #8 Illinois 4-3
7.  Georgia – defeated #4 UCLA 4-2 at home and lost to #1 USC 4-0.
8.  Illinois – lost to #11 Duke 4-3 and defeated #6 North Carolina 4-3
9.  Texas – defeated SMU 4-2 in Dallas
10. Baylor – defeated #73 Louisiana Lafayette 7-0 
11. Duke – defeated #8 Illinois 4-3 in Champaign and #30 Northwestern 5-2 in Evanston
12. California – defeated UNLV 5-2 
13. Columbia – idle
14. Notre Dame – defeated #30 Northwestern 4-3
15. Texas A&M – defeated #5 Ohio State 4-3


Unlike in past weeks there isn’t much mid-week activity this week though Friday’s lineup has some intrigue:

Tennessee at Duke
Florida at Florida State (ESPN3)
Georgia at Georgia Tech

South Florida at Oklahoma
Kentucky at Illinois
Wake Forest at South Carolina
Washington at Texas
Boise State at Northwestern
Oregon at Indiana