2010 Season Preview
BUllDoGs Battle the Best In athens In 2010
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he nation’s top teams will descend on Athens in May for the NCAA Tennis Championships, and the Georgia Bulldogs aim to be in the mix for another national title. Head coach Jeff Wallace begins his 25th season at the helm, and his 2010 squad features seniors Lara Fakhoury, Yvette Hyndman and Naoko Ueshima, juniors Cameron Ellis and Alex Raffalovich and super sophomores Nadja Gilchrist and Chelsey Gullickson. Gilchrist and Gullickson are returning All-Americans while Ueshima and Ellis combined to go 42-4 in dual matches to earn All-SEC second team honors. Georgia will be looking to make its 24th consecutive NCAA Championship appearance in 2010. Georgia has been ranked in the top 10 since March of 2007, and there are only two other schools (California and Georgia Tech) that can make that claim. Georgia ended the 2009 season ranked No. 3. During the fall season, the Bulldogs played in a number of tournaments across the country in preparation for the team dual matches. The fall is a time players fine tune their game. For the most part, Georgia battled to keep everyone healthy but the experienced lineup should be poised for a big season when January rolls around. “We had some highlights in the fall, and the most important thing in the spring will be to stay healthy and get the practice time on the courts for the dual match season,” said Wallace. Ellis saw the most action in the fall, posting an 8-5 singles record. She finished up with an impressive showing at the Duals in the Desert event in California, going 4-0 in singles and 3-0 in doubles with Ueshima. In the grand slam touranments, Gullickson advanced to the finals of the Riviera All-American Championships. Then in the ITA National Indoors, she was hampered by a leg in-
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2010 Georgia Women’s Tennis
the Championship tradition Continues, Georgia seeks fourth straight seC tournament title
jury during her first round match. “The highlights of the fall included Chelsey reaching the finals of the All-American and the way Cameron finished up at the final event in California going undefeated,” said Wallace. With a veteran lineup, the fall season is not so much about the tennis but conditioning as they prepare for the grind of a full collegiate season. In 2009, Georgia had six different players clinch a match and Ueshima led this group with eight match-clinching victories. Gullickson was next with seven while Ellis, Hyndman, Gilchrist and Monika Dancevic had three apiece. The Bulldogs had three matches end 4-3. Ellis got the clinching win in straight sets at #11 Clemson and versus #9 Southern California in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoors in Madison, Wis. Hyndman secured the win over #7 Baylor in Athens with a clutch three-set victory. “All great teams are full of players who can step up on any given day,” said Wallace. “It was exciting last year knowing a lot of players enjoyed being in that last match, and when it came down to them, they delivered. It brought out their best and now they have that confidence and experience to come through again this season.”
senIor star naoko Ueshima has won nearly 90 percent of her team dual matches, posting a mark of 64-8.