Georgia Tennis Women: Six Singles and Three Doubles In National Rankings

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The veteran Georgia tennis women’s team swept an entire lineup into the pre-season national rankings

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The Georgia women’s tennis team placed a national-best six singles players as well as three doubles pairs in the Oracle/ITA preseason rankings.

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That’s an entire team lineup team.

“It’s a good place to start the season,” said Associate Head Coach Drake Bernstein to Georgiadogs.com. “But the most important thing is where you finish in the rankings. We’re starting in a good spot with the most in the country, but we’re looking to finish with the most, the most important being the team ranking.”

Sophomore 2015 All-American Ellen Perez took the top singles spot among the Bulldogs, coming into the season pegged at number 29. The Shellharbour, Australia native beat seven nationally ranked singles opponents last year on the way to a 20-12 in singles record. Perez went 7-3 in SEC play from the Nos. 1 and 2 courts last year.

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Sophomores Kennedy Shaffer and Hannah King are ranked 33 and 55, respectively. Shaffer, a Rossford, Ohio native, finished 2015 18-6, going 2-0 on court 2 and was selected to the All-SEC Second Team and the Freshman All-SEC squad. King, from Dunwoody, appeared on the all-tournament teams for the ITA National Team Indoors, SEC Tournament and NCAA Championships. She also went 10-1 in the SEC, finished the year on an 11-match winning streak, and was undefeated (5-0) against ranked opponents in 2015.

The two upperclassmen on the roster, Silvia Garcia ranked 58 and Caroline Brinson ranked 72. Garcia, a two-time All-American, went 21-15 in singles play last year including 8-2 in the SEC. Brinson boasted a team-high 33 wins in singles play, going 20-4 in dual action with a 15-3 record on the No. 6 court.

Sophomore Mariana Gould rounded out the team’s singles rankings at 88. Gould went 17-6 last year in singles play, clinched two matches for Georgia and went 4-1 in SEC play.

Garcia and Shaffer, the team’s leading returning doubles pair, begin the year ranked number 16. The pair went 17-7 last year, all on court 2, and finished the season ranked 38.

Perez and Gould are ranked 20. Perez was named an All-American for her doubles play last year with Lauren Herring, and the duo finished the year ranked number 6. The Gould-Perez duo saw limited action together in 2015, going 3-2 on the year.

Ranked 51 is the Brinson-King pair. Coming off an 11-7 year in 2015, the duo looks to build on a 9-5 record on the No. 3 court and finished the year on a two-match winning streak a year ago.

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