National champions: Georgia women's tennis ends on top for first time since 2000
Georgia again is on top of the college women’s tennis world.
The No. 1 seed Bulldogs turned the tables on No. 2 seed Texas A&M to win the NCAA championship 4-0 in Waco, Texas a year after falling to the Aggies in the finals.
Georgia (29-3) won its first women’s tennis national title since 2000. The program also won the championship in 1994.
“Just really proud of this team,” second-year coach Drake Bernstein told ESPN+ on the broadcast after the victory. “It was a week in, week out thing. They just kept putting in the effort and I couldn’t ask for a better group. Couldn’t be happier for these four seniors to go out like that.”
The Bulldogs were playing in their third national championship finals in the last six tournaments, but came out on top this time. They improved to 3-4 all-time in NCAA title matches.
It’s the first national championship for a Georgia team in a sport overseen by the NCAA since football in the 2022 season
Georgia also won the national title this year in equestrian which is managed by the National Collegiate Equestrian Association. The football playoff is managed by the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame.
The Bulldogs withstood injuries to two contributors Alexandra Vecic and Mai Nirundorn this season but still finished on top.
Georgia won two of the three previous matches this season against Texas A&M (30-4) including winning the national indoor title this year and the SEC Tournament title.
Georgia outscored opponents 20-1 in the NCAA Tournament heading into the match and grabbed the doubles points with wins first on No. 2 and then on No. 3 doubles.
Guillermia Grant and Anastaslia Lopez defeated Lexington Reed and Daria Smetannikov 6-2 and Aysegul Mert and Hayden Mulberry held off Nicole Khirin and Lucciana Perez 7-5. Mert wore a sleeve on her right leg after sustaining an injury in the semifinals a day earlier.
“National championship final, it helps to get the dubs,” Bernstein said.
Texas A&M won first sets on three of the six singles courts, but Mert prevailed 7-6 in a first-set tiebreaker over Perez 11-9 on court 4 and Georgia battled back to force a third set on courts 2, 3 and 6.
“We had to play a next point mentality,” Bernstein said. “We knew that coming into the day. These matches aren’t decided with one good point here or there. We just kept stacking them up, point after point. Credit to the girls. It’s not easy to stay focused the way that they did, but as the scoreboards were adding up, I think you could see a lot of Georgia focus down the stretch.”
Georgia made it 2-0 when NCAA singles champion Dasha Vidmanova, ranked No. 2, beat top-ranked Mary Stoiana in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
Lopata lost the first set, but won the second causing Khirin to throw her racket in frustration. Lopata went on for a 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 win to increase the lead to 3-0.
Sofia Rojas, a transfer from Oklahoma State, clinched the title soon after on court six with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 win over Reed. Her Georgia teammates mobbed her when Rojas hit a volley out to clinch the championship.
Bernstein said he planned to celebrate with a FaceTime with his wife, former Georgia gymnast Cassidy McComb Bernstein, and their three kids Brody, Cashton and Beckham.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia women’s tennis downs Texas A&M for 1st national title since 2000
