The Alabama women’s tennis team, coming off of a 7-2 non-conference performance, and 3-2 against ranked teams, fell to the No. 13 Georgia Bulldogs 4-3 on Sunday.
Despite starting off Southeastern Conference play with a loss, head coach Jenny Mainz was very proud of her Crimson Tide team.
“We were in this match from the beginning,” Mainz said. “We played well enough to win and I’m proud of our effort, our energy and our attitude. But the bottom line is, when it came time to make things happen, Georgia stepped up and took it from us. They’re a great team and they really took it to us when it mattered most.”
Early in the match in doubles play, it looked as if Alabama would be the team making the big plays.
For the Bulldogs, junior Chelsea Gullickson and freshman Kate Fuller beat Alabama’s sophomore Alexa Guarachi and junior Courtney McLane, 8-4. Alabama’s star freshman Mary Anne MacFarlane and her partner, sophomore Antonia Foehse, responded with an 8-2 victory.
A tight match between Alabama’s freshman Alex Clay and junior Taylor Lindsey and Georgia’s freshmen Lilly Kimbell and Maho Kowase decided which team would get the doubles point. Clay and Lindsey found themselves down 4-7, but they put together five straight games, eventually escaping with a hard-fought 9-7 victory.
“We just really took momentum after [an unforced error from Kowase],” Clay said. “After that we just kept talking to each other in between points, telling each other that we could do this.”
Moving forward to singles play, it was the Bulldogs that made the majority of the big plays. Goergia’s defending NCAA singles national champion Gullickson won a highly-contested first set, 7-5. The second set, however, was controlled by Gullickson, who looked highly polished on her way to winning the second set 6-2 and defeating Alabama’s MacFarlane.
“[Gullickson] just played really well,” MacFarlane said. “She just took the momentum and ran away with it. There wasn’t much that I could do about it.”
The Tide’s effort showcased in the Gullickson-MacFarlane and the Foehse-Kimbell match was valiant; both matches went to deuce in every game.
Clay showed no signs of fatigue after the marathon doubles match, making quick work of freshman Alexandra Anghelescu, 6-1, 6-2.
“We both grew up in Georgia, so I played her in high school,” Clay said. “I just got ready for a fight. I took control of the first few points and kept going.”
As for McLane, she shook off her doubles defeat and fashioned a major upset over Georgia’s Nadja Gilchrist. Gilchrist came into the match ranked 11th in the region and 59th in the nation, compared to McLane’s 116th national ranking.
“Courtney really stepped up here game today,” Mainz said.
“We had a very good chance to beat a great team in this match, and we’re going to get more opportunities,” Mainz said. “We get another good opportunity at Florida on Friday at 5 p.m.”
Florida is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation.
