Friday, 04/29/2011

Five Bulldogs Earn All-SEC Tennis Honors

Georgia Sports Communications/For Immediate Release/April 27, 2011

ATHENS-----Five members of the ninth-ranked Georgia women’s tennis earned All-Southeastern Conference honors, the league announced Wednesday.

Junior Chelsey Gullickson and freshman Maho Kowase were named First Team All-SEC while senior Cameron Ellis and freshmen Kate Fuller and Lilly Kimbell made Second Team All-SEC. Also, Kowase was among six rookies in the league named to the All-Freshman Team.

“It’s exciting to see a few of the postseason awards come out, and the Bulldogs well represented on the All-SEC teams,” said Georgia coach Jeff Wallace. “Chelsey and Maho won their share of big matches on the top courts for us, and it’s great to see Maho as a freshman make First Team All-SEC. Cameron has had an outstanding career for us, she’s been very consistent and Lilly and Kate have been a key part to our success this year too.”

Gullickson has earned First Team All-SEC honors in all three of her years at Georgia. Also, this was the third time in Ellis’s Bulldog career that she has been selected All-SEC. Gullickson is ranked No. 22 nationally, and she is the defending NCAA singles champion. The Gullickson/Fuller tandem is 15-5 and ranked No. 10 nationally. Ellis, ranked No. 82, owns the top singles record this season at 28-6 while Kowase, ranked No. 79, leads the team in wins with a 29-10 record. Kimbell is 25-9 in singles and like Ellis, went 10-2 in SEC action. Kimbell is ranked No. 41 in doubles with junior Nadja Gilchrist.

The Bulldogs (16-4) will learn next week if they will serve as one of the host sites for the first/second rounds of the NCAA Tennis Championships. The NCAA will produce a selection show on Tuesday, May 3 at 5 p.m. EDT that will be webcast on NCAA.com. First and second round action will be held at various campus sites from May 13-15, and the final 16 sites of the 2011 NCAA Championships will be May 19-30 in Palo Alto, California.

Complete team brackets will be posted on the NCAA websites  (www.NCAA.com and www.NCAA.org) approximately 30 minutes after the completion of Tuesday's selection show. The list of individuals selected to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will be available on both websites by 6 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 4.

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