Women's tennis at home after break

FAYETTEVILLE — The 22nd-ranked Razorback women’s tennis team returns home this weekend for a Southeastern Conference matchup with defending conference champion, No. 14 Georgia on Friday, before hitting the road again to Knoxville, Tenn. to take on the No. 15 Lady Vols on Sunday. This is the third weekend of SEC play for the Hogs, who are riding a two match conference winning streak going into Friday.

Last week, before spring break hit the campus, the Razorbacks took on an unranked, but tough Texas A&M squad and ended up dropping that match by a close score of 4-3. In the match, Arkansas was not able to win the doubles point, but rallied back to win three singles matches at the four, five, and six positions and took it to the final match at the number one spot. Unfortunately, junior Anouk Tigu, who took the match to a third set, narrowly lost to Elze Potgieter, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. With the loss, the Hogs move to 12-5 on the season overall and remained at 2-2 in the SEC.

This weekend’s action begins with the Hogs hosting the Lady Bulldogs from Athens, Ga. Georgia comes into this match with a perfect 4-0 SEC record this season and is making their first trip back to Fayetteville since claiming the SEC Championship last season. Georgia brings into this match the ninth-ranked doubles team of Chelsey Gullickson and Nadja Gilchrist, who are sitting on a 14-match winning streak. In singles for the Bulldogs, senior Yvette Hyndman is 10-13 on the year, but is perfect in SEC play at 4-0, including a five-match winning streak.

In the all-time series, Georgia holds a 19-3 advantage including a 6-1 victory last year in Athens. However, in that match, Arkansas had a depleted roster with only five players available to play and looks to have a much deeper roster this time around.

In the second game of the weekend, Arkansas travels to Knoxville, Tenn. to take on the Lady Vols. Last season in Fayetteville, Arkansas fell behind early after losing the doubles point and the first singles match to Tennessee, but was able to battle back after getting wins at the number one and three positions and won the overall match, 4-3.

Tennessee brings to this match two ranked singles players in senior Caitlin Whoriskey at number 12 and junior Maria Sorbello at number 58. In doubles, the Lady Vols field the number one duo in the country consisting of Whorisky and sophomore Natalie Pluskota, as well as, Rosalia Alda and Zsofia Zubor at number 18.

The Razorbacks have a tough set of matches on their hands this weekend, but look to be up to the task as they have been holding up stellar play at home this season with a 10-1 record. In individual play, the Hogs do bring in one ranked player in Tigu, who is number 55 in the nation and holds a 9-5 record in singles this spring season.

Friday’s match against Georgia will be played at the George M. Billingsley Tennis Center, with first serve set for noon. Sunday’s match against the Lady Vols will be played in Knoxville with that match set to start at noon as well.

For full coverage of the Razorback women’s tennis team, including complete results after each match, be sure to visit ArkansasRazorbacks.com.