The South Carolina women’s tennis team will head to the Southeastern Conference tournament in Athens, Ga., looking to snap a three-match losing streak and improve upon its performance at the last year’s conference tournament, where it lost to Tennessee in the quarter-finals.
The No. 18 Gamecocks are coming off a 4-0 loss to No. 3 Florida in a match where both coaches agreed to suspend play as soon as the outcome was decided. Carolina was in position to win several of the unfinished contests, including first singles, where senior Ana Marija Zubori and sophomore Dijana Stojic held a 7-5 lead.
“We’ve seen positive things about all the matches we’ve played this year. Every match has been very close,” coach Arlo Elkins said. “It’s positive that we think we can play with anybody. Now we have to prove we can beat some of them, not just play with them.”
In the first round of the tournament, South Carolina will face Kentucky, the same team it defeated in the first round last year. Earlier this year, the Gamecocks dominated the Wildcats 7-0, but Elkins does not underestimate the opponent.
“I don’t think there’s any easy match. I think we’re probably the favorite going into it, but I don’t think there’s an easy match in the SEC,” he said. “They want do to well. We want to do well. I look for a closer match than we had last time. I think we still have to play well. If we’re going to go deep into this tournament, we have to take care of business every match we go out.”
Prior to the loss against Florida, USC suffered losses to conference opponents Georgia and Tennessee, but the team’s recent struggles against SEC teams has not changed its goals going into this weekend.
“Our goal, obviously, is to win the conference tournament, and we’re going in this year with that attitude,” Elkins said. “We’re not going there to lose in the quarters or the first round or the second or third, we’re going there to win the tournament. But everyone else has that same goal.”
Carolina has relied heavily upon the freshmen at the bottom of its lineup all year. Adriana Pereira boasts an impressive 22-9 record in singles this year, and the Gamecocks will rely upon Madeleine Saari-Bystrom and Rita Maisak to provide a boost at sixth singles and second doubles, respectively. Their lack of experience is not a cause for concern.
“These girls have all played extensive international tournaments, and I don’t think the pressure is going to bother them at all,” Elkins said. “I think, if anything, it seems to me in practice here that it’s more motivation for them. They hadn’t done this before, and they really want to do well and show people that we’re a good team.”
The match against Kentucky will kick off at 10 a.m. today.
