Gullickson, Gilchrist ready for NCAA Singles Championships
May 20, 2009 by The Red and Black Archives
Filed under Sports
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS – Georgia freshmen Chelsey Gullickson and Nadja Gilchrist along with junior Yvette Hyndman return to action here Wednesday for the NCAA Singles Championship.
The Bulldog trio spent Tuesday practicing for the final individual tournament of the season. Then after the doubles point of the Duke-Cal national championship match in the evening, the student-athletes from Georgia and Note Dame received their NCAA semifinalist trophies.
Gullickson, who was named the ITA Rookie of the Year Tuesday, is seeded eighth in the event. She will face sophomore Michaela Kissell of Miami at 12:30 p.m. ET. Gullickson is 39-9 this season, ranked ninth and enters the tournament on a 12-match winning streak. Kissell sports a career-best 36-8 mark and is ranked No. 49.
Gilchrist is 35-10 this year and ranked No. 56. She will battle sophomore Mari Andersson of California at 6:30 p.m. ET. Andersson is ranked No. 41 and owns a 24-4 record heading in to the national championship team match with Duke.
Hyndman is ranked No. 55 and is 19-22 this year including 10 wins over ranked opponents. She will face junior Yasmin Schnack at noon ET. She is the Bruins top player and ranked 15th nationally. Schnack notched a straight set win over third-ranked Julia Cohen in the Bruins 4-2 loss to Miami in the NCAA Round of 16 here this past Friday. Schnack edged Hyndman during the National Team Indoors this past February, winning 7-6(1),3-6,6-4.
On Thursday the NCAA Doubles Championship begins, and the All-America duo of Gilchrist and Gullickson will be among the field of 32. Currently, they are 13-4 overall and one of the top eight seeds in the tournament. They will face the Clemson duo of Josipa Bek and Ina Hadziselimovic, winners of 10 of their last 13 matches. They are 15-7 this year and played primarily in the No. 2 spot in the Tiger lineup.
“Every match in the NCAA Tournament is tough, and you have to play your very best each time out to advance,” said Georgia coach Jeff Wallace. “We want our players to finish strong, and they now have a chance at a couple of individual NCAA titles.
All matches will be best of three sets and played on the Texas A&M campus at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
Georgia has had two NCAA singles champions in Lisa Spain (1984) and Angela Lettiere (1994). The Bulldogs have never won an NCAA Doubles title but have had a team reach the finals four times.
- Georgia Sports Communications
