ATLANTA – The Mount Mary tennis team was deemed the No. 5 seed for its first ever Great South Athletic Conference Tournament this week, as announced by GSAC Commissioner Joeleen Akin.
Mount Mary (6-5) will take on No. 4 Mills College (2-10) in the third dual match of the day, beginning approximately 1:00 p.m. CT Friday. The winner of the matchup will take on the winner of No. 1 UC-Santa Cruz (1-15) and No. 8 Rust College (0-4). The losers of both matches will play in the consolation bracket.
Head coach Tom Troast is excited to see what his Blue Angels can do, shaking up his lineup a bit since the team’s last match in early October.
Hitting at No. 1 singles will be junior Nina Her (Brown Deer, Wis.), who despite having never played in the marquee slot this season, is 3-0 in singles play. Senior Briana Lock (Milwaukee, Wis.), who spent much of the fall at No. 1 singles, will look to take control at the No. 2 slot in the tournament opener.
Freshman Ana Mercado (Grafton, Wis.) will slide into the No. 3 spot, having gone 6-5 overall in singles play this season. Senior Katie Wolk (Oshkosh, Wis.) will take her 6-4 overall record into play at No. 4 singles. Freshman Andrea Monacelli (Sussex, Wis.) and sophomore Krista Olson (Appleton, Wis.) will round out the singles competitors at No. 5 and No. 6 singles respectively.
Mills, which hails from Oakland, Calif., has played an almost entirely Division II schedule this season—thus its struggle to secure wins. But the Cyclones’ strength of schedule should provide a very interesting first-round matchup for the Blue Angels, which is coming off its best season in school history.
This is the first season the GSAC has opened up its league tennis tournament to schools outside the greater southeastern U.S. The league sponsors six tournaments in volleyball, soccer, and cross country (fall); basketball (winter); and tennis and softball (spring).
No. 3 Agnes Scott College (Decatur, Ga.) has won the last five GSAC tennis tournament titles. No. 2 Salem College (Winston-Salem, N.C.) was this year’s regular season GSAC champion. No. 1 UC-Santa Cruz (Calif.) has played 11 ranked teams this season and boasts the highest Massey Rating—which determined final seeding—entering this weekend.
FRIDAY SCHEDULE
| Match 1 | (#2) Salem College (N.C.) vs. (#7) Trinity College (D.C.) | 9:00 a.m. CT |
| Match 2 | (#3) Agnes Scott College (Ga.) vs. (#6) Wesleyan University (Ga.) | 11:00 a.m. CT |
| Match 3 | (#4) Mills College (Calif.) vs. (#5) Mount Mary University | 1:00 p.m. CT |
| Match 4 | (#1) University of Calif.-Santa Cruz vs. (#8) Rust College (Miss.) | 3:00 p.m. CT |
- All Matches played on the campus of Georgia Tech University's Byers Tennis Complex in Atlanta, Ga.
