Gamecock women’s tennis started off strong in the Debbie Southern Fall Classic at Furman University, taking the title of Flight 1 Doubles Champion.
Head coach Kevin Epley was pleased with the Sept. 22 win, but sees room to improve.
"We played our best tennis ... and came with some victories we are proud of." Epley said. "We are looking forward to getting back to work over the next few weeks and cleaning up a few items in singles and improving our doubles play."
Doubles team Ingrid Gamarra Martins and Mia Horvit defeated Wake Forest in the final bracket of Flight 1. Flight 2 team Paige Cline and Silvia Chinellato were narrowly defeated 8-7 by Wake Forest on the path to Flight 2 Doubles Championship.
Other doubles flights did not perform as well, with Rachel Rohrabacher and Megan Davies defeated in the third round by Florida State University in Flight 3. Flight 4 doubles team Giulia Turconi and Kennedy Wicker fought to the final round before losing to University of North Carolina by default.
"It's great to get some matches under our belt in consecutive days so we can work on getting better every match. I think we will see our best tennis," Epley said.
South Carolina competed in Flights 4 and 5 for their respective singles championships throughout the day on Sept. 23. Flight 7 was lost by default.
In addition, Gamecock Invitational hosted men’s tennis with Patrick Cacciatore winning the singles championship in B-Flight against Beau Pelletier, a fellow teammate, 6-3, 7-5. Joseph Brailovsky was defeated by Cacciatore in semi-finals in the third set, giving first, second and third place to Gamecock men’s tennis.