Gamecocks beat Furman 7-0
The South Carolina women's tennis team was in high spirits after Wednesday's 7-0 victory over Furman in the Gamecock's brand new tennis facility, the Carolina Tennis Center.
"The weather was unbelievable, and this facility is unbelievable," said coach Arlo Elkins. "The win is always nice too. Pretty exciting day."
Furman is ranked No. 74 in the country and currently does not have any players ranked in the top 100 on the team. The Paladins managed to remain competitive in a few early sets and only were able to win one set against No. 27 South Carolina.
Despite the Gamecock's No. 1 ranking singles player Anya Morgina appeared frustrated early on in the match.
After sailing an easy volley over the fences, Morgina laughed with the fans as she took a moment to gather herself. It didn't take her long to recover though. Morgina rolled through the rest of the match, placing shots with both precision and power, earning a 6-3 6-2 victory over Furman's Lauren Kline.
"Once you're playing, you don't really feel the coldness," Morgina said. "I was just kind of warming up in the beginning, and then I started playing much better."
Morgina, who is the No. 20 player in the nation, hopes that the new facilities will help to bring out more fans.
"[The new stadium] is a huge improvement from Maxcy Gregg. It's a really good opportunity and it's good motivation for us. More people are coming to watch, hopefully."
With an undefeated record against Furman, the new facility brought unexpected nerves.
"A couple of them said they were a little nervous when they came out," Elkins said. "They didn't want to be the first loss in the new facility."
Jaklin Alawi, South Carolina's No. 2 seed, said that there were some nerves early on. They showed at the start, as Alawi lost the first set 4-6. She rebounded nicely, however, to take the second and third sets easily for the win over Katherine Oudin.
"I don't think she played bad the first set, but she pulled herself together and won the last two sets 6-2, 6-1," Elkins said. "That probably should have been the score to begin with. I'm pleased with the way she played."
Other victorious Gamecocks included Dijana Stojic (6-4, 6-2), Katerina Popova (6-3, 6-0), Dominika Kanakova (6-2, 6-2) and Adriana Pereira (6-3, 6-3).
The doubles teams had victories by Alawi and Stojic (8-0), Morgina and Josefin Andersson (8-2) and Kanakova and Popova (8-6).
Doubles has been a point of emphasis for Elkins, who seemed happy with their performances.
"Our doubles has struggled the past couple years," Elkins said. "I thought the doubles came out and played really well to start off."
It was not only a successful opening night for the new facility, but a great night for the team itself as they venture into the 2012 season.
"I thought they all stuck together really well," Elkins praised. "They did the things that we ask them to do. That's what we expect from them. And when we get that, I think we're going to have good results."