University of Illinois
Georgia State
Fighting Illini Hit the Road for ITA Kickoff Weekend
January 27, 2017 | Women's Tennis
Illinois will play two matches at Georgia
URBANA, Ill. – The Illinois women's tennis team heads back out on the road this weekend for the ITA Kickoff. The Fighting Illini will play Georgia State first on Saturday at 8 a.m. CT, and will play again on Sunday.
"It's exciting," said head coach Evan Clark. "We are just looking for another opportunity to play. The girls are excited for another opportunity to play. The team didn't feel great about going 0-2 last weekend, so this weekend provides us another opportunity of the way we can play against two very good teams."
New Mexico will play host and sixth-ranked Georgia in the afternoon game on Saturday. A win against the Panthers will put the Orange in Blue in Sunday's 4 p.m. CT match against the winner of the New Mexico-Georgia match, while a loss will mean Illinois will play the loser Sunday morning at 8 a.m. CT.
HISTORY VS. THE PANTHERS, BULLDOGS AND LOBOS
Illinois has played Georgia State twice in program history, Georgia once and has never faced New Mexico. The Fighting Illini won the only two meetings against Georgia State, but fell to Georgia in their only match. The Orange and Blue played Georgia State in the Peach State both times, and the last match, a 4-3 Illini victory, took place during 2012-13 season. The only past meeting between Illinois and Georgia was during the 1984-85 season, when the two teams participated in the Clemson Invitational. Georgia won, 9-0.
IN THE RANKINGS
Senior Louise Kwong and sophomore Ines Vias currently rank No. 32 in the nation among doubles tandems.
Georgia has three players in the ITA Rankings for singles, and one tandem ranked in doubles. Eleni Christofi (No. 23), Kennedy Shaffer (No. 25) and Carolina Brinson (No. 35) are all ranked in the top 35 in singles, and Christofi and Shaffer are ranked No. 26 in the nation in doubles.
