NCAA Women’s Tennis: Lady Bulldogs In Final ITA Rankings
By Danny Bishop
Lauren Herring, Photo courtesy of University of Georgia
The final Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) individual rankings were released Wednesday highlighted by Lauren Herring at No. 7 in singles and Kate Fuller and Silvia Garcia at No. 2 in doubles.
These Bulldogs earned All-America honors by virtue of their final ranking along with their seeding and performance at the NCAA Championships last month. Herring, a sophomore, was the sixth seed, reached the quarterfinals and posted a final record of 38-7. Also, the top-seeded doubles team of Fuller and Garcia advanced to the quarterfinals, ending the year with a 26-4 mark.
This is the first All-America honor for Herring and the freshman Garcia, and the second honor for Fuller who is a junior. In 2011, Fuller made it in doubles with Chelsey Gullickson. That year, the duo finished 17-6, reached the NCAA quarterfinals and wound up with a final ranking of No. 8.
Photo by John Kelley
There are three ways to achieve All-America honors. In singles, a player must be a top 16 seed in the NCAA Singles Championship, or reach the round of 16 at the NCAAs, or finish in the top 20 of the final ITA rankings. In doubles, a player must be a top eight seed in the NCAA Doubles Championship, or reach the quarterfinals at the NCAAs, or finish in the top 10 of the final ITA rankings.
Junior Maho Kowase just missed All-America honors after ending the year ranked No. 21. She went 38-10 in singles. Garcia posted a 24-4 mark in singles and wound up ranked No. 82. Also of note, the Herring/Kowase duo finished the year ranked No. 48 in doubles after going 14-2. The Kowase/Lilly Kimbell tandem had a final ranking of No. 83.
Last week, the ITA released the final team rankings, and Georgia (24-4) finished No. 5. Georgia won a share of the 2013 SEC regular season title and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships. In head coach Jeff Wallace’s 28 years at the helm, Georgia has finished ranking in the top five 13 times.
The NCAA Tennis Championships return to Athens and the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in 2014.