ORLANDO – The No. 24 UCF women's tennis team (7-7) hits the road for the last time during the regular season this weekend. The Knights head to No. 22 Georgia Tech on Thursday, Mar. 23 and then continue north to face No. 33 Clemson on Saturday, Mar. 25. Both matches will kick off at 2 p.m. and will have live stats and a live video stream.
LAST TIME OUT
The Knights went 1-1 last week, with a 4-0 sweep over No. 57 Yale on Tuesday night followed by a difficult 6-1 heartbreaker to No. 7 NC State. After allowing Yale to win only two games in the doubles point, Noel Saidenova, Stefani Webb, and Sophia Biolay picked up singles wins on courts one, two, and four, respectively, to put the Black and Gold on top and clinch the match victory, Despite the score, the Knights fought hard against NC State and went to three sets on all but three singles courts. Nandini Sharma shined bright during the match, earning two ranked wins. Her first was in doubles with partner Webb, defeating the 8th-ranked doubles tandem in a commanding 6-1 decision. She also took down the 123rd-ranked singles player on court five, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, to give the Knights their lone point of the match.
KNIGHTS IN THE POLLS
The Knights checked back into the top-25 teams in the ITA polls, coming in at No. 24 after splitting the matches between Yale and NC State last week. Senior Marie Mattel remains the only singles player ranked for the Knights, coming in at No. 38 in the latest ITA singles polls. The Black and Gold have two doubles pairings ranked in Mattel and Biolay and Webb and Sharma. Mattel and Biolay slid down to No. 75 after going 1-1 in their last two matches. Webb and Sharma popped into the rankings at No. 57 after going undefeated in the last two matches, earning a huge top-10 win in the match against NC State on court two. This is the first time both players have been featured in the doubles rankings this season.
THE OPPONENTS
No. 22 Georgia Tech will enter Thursday's matchup with a 9-6 record. After dropping four straight matchups, the Yellow Jackets regained momentum last weekend, defeating both Boston College and No. 25 Syracuse by a score of 6-1. Georgia Tech features No. 7 Carol Lee, who leads the way with a 20-6 record. In her last matchup, Lee won in straight sets against Syracuse's Zeynep Erman, 6-1, 6-2. Lee, a junior from the Northern Mariana Islands, has won 11 of 13 previous finished matchups.
The team also features two other ranked singles competitors: No. 26 Kylie Bilchev, and No. 65 Mahak Jain. After falling to No. 111 in the singles rankings, Bilchev (18-6) went 13-3 in finished matches to jump up the board to No. 26. No. 65 Jain (21-7) began the year unranked, but multiple strong performances boosted her into the top 100.
The UCF and Georgia Tech women's tennis teams have never faced off against each other.
No. 33 Clemson (13-7) are also finding their footing after a long losing streak. After losing five straight matchups, the Tigers have won two of their previous three, with wins over No. 25 Syracuse, and Chattanooga. No. 74 Daniella Medvedeva is the lone ranked player for the Tigers and has compiled a 17-5 singles record. In her previous outing, Medvedeva defeated Chattanooga's Nicole Abel in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0.
UCF and Clemson have split the only two meetings. The last matchup occurred in 2018 and resulted in a 4-3 victory for the Knights.
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