SEASON IN REVIEW: The Bulldogs made their 27th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, falling in the NCAA Quarterfinals to No. 12 Stanford, 4-1. Georgia beat Wintrhop (First Round), Arizona State (Second Round) and Clemson (Round of 16) in route to its 21st quarterfinal appearance in program history. Georgia is 67-25 all-time in the NCAA Championships.

        

Georgia went 21-3 throughout the regular season, knocking off nine Top-25 opponents, including six away from the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The Bulldogs won their ninth SEC Championship, after going 13-1 in SEC competition. Highlights from the SEC slate included wins at No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 8 Alabama. Georgia's potential was noticted early on after it started the season by reaching the semifinals of the National Team Indoor Championships before falling to No. 1 UCLA, 4-1. It beat No. 11 Texas, 4-2, in the round of 16 and No. 7 Cal, 4-1 in the quarterfinals.

        

The Bulldogs' final 24-4 record give them their 21st 20+ season in program history. They finished the season ranked No. 5 in the national ranking. The Bulldogs were ranked inside the top-five nine different times during 2013.

 

BULLDOGS IN NCAA SINGLES AND DOUBLES: Sophomore Lauren Herring and junior Maho Kowase both advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA singles tournament. They're the seventh and eighth Bulldogs to advance to the quarterfinals since 2000. In doubles, junior Kate Fuller and freshman Silvia Garcia also advanced to the quarterfinals. Georgia has now had at least a team in the quarterfinal round each of the last four years.

 

SEC CHAMPIONS: Georgia clinched its ninth regular season SEC championship (1983, `89, `90, `94, 2000, `02, `07, `09). It's only the fourth time in history that both the men and women's team's have won the SEC regular season in the same year.

 

GEORGIA IN THE FINAL RANKINGS: For the second consecutive year, Georgia finishes the season ranked inside the top-five. The Bulldogs end the year with three ranked singles players and four ranked doubles pairs. Herring and Kowase anchored the top of the Bulldog lineup. Herring, who earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors in 2012, is ranked seven nationally sporting a 38-7 record this year. This season, she beat nine Top-30 opponents. Kowase, who has a 38-10 record, is ranked 21st in the country. She went undefeated in conference play, racking up the most conference wins of anyone in the SEC. She had a team-high nine match clinchers. Garcia, ranked No. 82 in the country, and has been playing at the three spot since enrolling in January and is 24-4 this season--a best among SEC freshman.

        

In doubles,  Fuller and Garcia, went 26-4 this season, finishing as the nation's second-ranked doubles tandem. Fuller is also ranked with Herring (No. 51). Georgia's court two duo of Herring and Kowase came in at No. 48 in the latest rankings. Kowase and Lilly Kimbell are ranked No. 83 with a 9-3 record. Since August, Georgia played 14 different doubles pairings.

 

KEEPING IT FRESH: Freshman had a big impact on Georgia's 2013 success. They accounted for nearly 35% of the team's singles wins, combining to go 58-21 (.734), almost exclusively since January. After ITA National Team Indoors,>Silvia Garcia was named to the All-Tournament Team and garnered SEC women's tennis Freshman of the Week honors. She finished the year with a 24-4 record in singles and a 26-4 in doubles record. She finished the year ranked No. 2 in the latest ITA Top-60 doubles rankings with junior>Kate Fuller and is ranked No. 82 in singles.

        

Mia King and Ayaka Okuno have each clinched three matches for Georgia this spring. King is 14-5 record, while Okuno is 5-2, fresh of a 2-0 record in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. She started her career with an undefeated weekend that helped her reel in SEC Freshman of the Week honors.

 

DOUBLES RECORD FOR FULLER: With her 40 doubles wins this year,>Kate Fuller is the new Georgia record holder for doubles victories in a season. Chelsey Gullickson set the old record with 35 in 2012.

 

IN THE NUMBERS: Here are some interesting statistics from the 2013 season:

• Georgia finished with a combined 46 wins the last two seasons, the best since 2009-10.

• Georgia finished with a .807 singles winning percentage (among its top six players) and a .880 doubles winning percentage (among its top three teams). Both totals are the best since doubles moved to being played before singles in 2001. Ignoring the format change, the next best year would be Georgia's 2000 National Championship season (.733/.750).

• On the topic of winning percentages, freshman>Silvia Garcia has team-bests in both singles (.857) and doubles (.892).

• Home Sweet Home...Georgia went a perfect 14-0 at home this season for 12th time in program history. It last happened in 2009.

 

 

2012-13 HONORS AND AWARDS:

• Four members of the Georgia women's tennis team were named to All-SEC teams. Herring and Kowase were named to the All-SEC First Team, and Fuller and Garcia were named to the All-SEC Second Team. Garcia was also named to the conference's All-Freshman Team.

• Kowase went 3-0 in April 12-14, including both match clinchers, to earn SEC Player of the Week honors. The Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan native capped a perfect SEC singles slate (12-0) and was riding a 13-match winning streak.

• Okuno won SEC Freshman of the Week honors for April 5-7 after starting her Bulldog career going 2-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles. The Osaka, Japan, native dropped only five games combined in her singles and doubles matches throughout that weekend.

• Fuller was one of nine SEC women's tennis players to be named to SEC Community Service team, which highlights athletes from the SEC who give back to their community through service. She is a three-time member. Fuller was also award the Southeast Region Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award. The award, which dates back to 1982, goes to players who have exhibited outstanding sportsmanship and leadership as well as scholastic, extracurricular and tennis achievements. Fuller is the President as Georgia's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and has been a member of the committee since 2010. She helped to launch initiatives that increases school spirit amongst student-athletes and that keeps track of all of the community service hours performed by student-athletes. She is on the leadership of Team United, and through that, has been involved in activities such as Special Olympics at UGA, and speaking in local schools. Fuller is a three-time member of the SEC Community Service Team, in addition to being an ITA Scholar-Athlete and a repeat member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll.

• Fuller and sophomore>Lauren Herring were named to the 2013 SEC All-Tournament team.

 

WALLACE WINS NO. 600: Women's tennis head coach Jeff Wallace became one of just three women's tennis coaches to reach the 600-win mark during the 2013 season. With Georgia's 7-0 win over Arkansas, Wallace improved his career record to 607-150 record. He remains the winningest active coach in women's college tennis. He is one of five active collegiate tennis coaches (of men or women) to reach the mark. He is also just the fifth coach in UGA's history to reach the 600-win mark (A. Landers, 905, S. Yoculan, 834, L. Harris-Champer, 844, D. Magill, 706).

 

MCCARTHY INDUCTED TO TENNIS HALL OF FAME: Georgia seven-time All-American Shannan McCarthy Gaudette was inducted into the state of Georgia Tennis Hall of Fame in late April. She advanced to at least the semifinals in every grand slam event during her career and won 36 matches in these tournaments and was a finalist  at 1990 National Clay Courts, 1991 National Indoors, 1992 NCAAs and 1989 Riviera All-American Doubles. She is the all-time school leader in career singles victories (150) and sixth in combined career wins (217). After Georgia, she went on to enjoy a six-year career on the Women's Tennis Association professional tour and played annually in all four Grand Slam events. She reached a career-high world ranking of No. 62 in doubles and No. 153 in singles.

        

Former Bulldogs enshrined include: Malon Courts (1983), Lt. Governor Pierre Howard (1994), Lisa Spain Short (1995), Al Parker (2003), Allen Miller (2004), Jaime Kaplan (2006), Mikael Pernfors (2008), Danny Birchmore (2011), Gordon Smith (2012) plus current coaches>Jeff Wallace (2010), Manuel Diaz (2000) and former coach Dan Magill (1984).

 

ITS NOT JUST THE WOMEN: Georgia was one of three schools to have both its women's and men's tennis programs currently ranked in the top 10. The Georgia men's team finished the season ranked No. 3. The others were UCLA and Southern California.

        

This year also marks the first time since 2009 that both Georgia programs have won the SEC Championship and have gone undefeated at home.