The South Carolina State women’s tennis team played a hard fought battle against the # 2 Lady Bulldogs of Georgia, but came up short in the First Round of the NCAA Tennis Championships Saturday. The match was played at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia.

SC State began the day with a sluggish start, losing the doubles point. In the number two position Monika Dancevic and Yvette Hyndman defeated Fanni Fricska and Tatiana Varela, 8-1. The number three doubles team of Cameron Ellis and Naoko Ueshima defeated Iveta Blodniece and Amy Chen, 8-0.

Despite losing the match, 4-0, the Lady Bulldogs of SC State hung tough against SEC Champion Georgia. Early in doubles play SCSU stumble a bit with the power of UGA but was able to gain a little momentum at the end.

SC State’s one position player Fanni Fricska was defeated by # 9 ranked player Chelsey Gullickson, 6-0, 6-1. SCSU would go down fighting as Nadja Gilchrist (ranked 56) defeated Aniko Kiss, 6-0, 6-2 in the number three position and Cameron Ellis defeated Tatiana Varela, 6-0, 6-0, in the sixth position.

 “I am so proud of the way my team played against a very talented Georgia team,” said SCSU coach Hardeep Judge. When you are playing a team such as UGA who’s ranked nationally year in year out it’s going to be tough either way you put it.”

Judge stated, “It’s always good to play a great team it builds character and makes you better.”  “We are young so I am looking forward to seeing what this team can do next season.”

The Lady Bulldogs close out the season with a 14-6 overall record.