The Kentucky women’s tennis team takes on Georgia Tech this afternoon at the Bill Moore Tennis Center in Atlanta. Follow the match here with live stats and live blogging from the stadium. Keep hitting refresh for the latest updates.
11 a.m. – It’s a beautiful Sunday morning in Atlanta at the Bill Moore Tennis Complex. Both Kentucky and Georgia Tech have begun stretching for today’s NCAA Tournament second round match.
11:08 a.m. – The teams have begun warming up, Georgia Tech taking courts one through three with UK on four through six. The Wildcats have broken out the Kentucky blue tops today while the Yellow Jackets are in gold, with their gold-painted tennis shoes.
11:22 a.m. – As the team continues warm ups, Carlos Drada is asked how his team looks. The loose, yet confident head coach needs just a one-word answer, “Great!” Moments later, he jumps into the warm ups for some volleys as one of the Wildcat players takes a break.
11:31 a.m. – Kentucky has a lineup change in doubles. Caroline Winebrenner has come off and is speaking to the trainers. It doesn’t appear to be major, but she’ll be replaced by Jessica Giuggioli at No. 3 doubles with partner Whitney Spencer. The two have played together just once before, an 8-4 win at No. 3 against Harvard.
11:47 a.m. – Warm ups are beginning to wind down as the teams prepare for the match. The word on Winebrenner is that her lower back has tightened up just enough to keep her out of action. The team would like to also take this time to wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day!
12:01 p.m. – And they’re off. Today’s second round match has kicked off and Kentucky has quite a task ahead of them to knock off third-ranked Georgia Tech. If the Wildcats can pull it off, it will be their sixth straight Sweet 16 appearance.
12:10 p.m. – Georgia Tech and Kentucky opened by holding serve with ease on courts one and two, respectively. However, the big news early is the Yellow Jackets breaking in the first game on court three to gain an early advantage. After struggling early yesterday, the team of Schwenk/Escamilla on court two appear to have picked up right where they left off yesterday when they won five of the last six games to win their match.
12:26 p.m. – Things continue to go Georgia Tech’s way on court three. Spencer/Giuggioli fended off a pair of break points, but couldn’t stave off a third as the Yellow Jackets have gone up 4-0. On court one, Kim Coventry was broken to go down 3-1, but UK was poised to strike right back. Sarah Woestmann had a big return to set up a potential game-winning volley, but went into the net on break point. After squandering another break point, Georgia Tech held on and leads a break at 4-1. However, Schwenk/Escamilla are playing extremely well at No. 2, breaking early and taking a 4-2 lead against the 26th-ranked duo of Alison Silverio/Amanda Craddock.
12:37 p.m. – Kentucky is dominating on court two, rarely dropping a point on its own serve. Unfortunately, the Wildcats can’t seem to gain any traction at Nos. 1 and 3. On court one, the big serving of Kristi Miller and Whitney McCray is earning the nation’s third-ranked team some easy points. The pair has a two-break lead at 6-1. On three, UK got on the board by holding serve, but couldn’t keep the momentum for a break and trails 5-1.
12:57 p.m. – The doubles point has gone the way of the Yellow Jacket as UK falls behind 1-0. At No. 1, Coventry/Woestmann again failed to convert a precious break point when trailing 6-2 and eventually fell 8-2. Minutes later, Rudman/Flower fended off two break points at No. 3 and finished off Spencer/Giuggioli, 8-2.
12:59 p.m. – Big serving from Georgia Tech and the inability to capitalize on break points when they got them did Kentucky in on the doubles poinit. At No. 1, after being broken early, the team had a chance to get it right back, but missed on two chances. The same happened on Court Three. After falling behind early, Spencer/Giuggioli couldn’t come back, missing out on two break points in what would be the final game of the match. On to singles, UK needs four wins against the vaunted Tech singles lineup that features six ranked players.
1:23 p.m. – Singles play is young, but early trends are good for UK. The Wildcats appear to have advantages at Nos. 2, 3 and 6, where they have secured an early first-set break on each. On the other side, Georgia Tech broke early at No. 1. Needing to win four singles matches to advance, conventional wisdom says that the Wildcats need wins from Joelle Schwenk and Sarah Woestmann at Nos. 2 and 3, where they have been dominant this year. Add in a win from Carolina Escamilla at No. 6, where she should be the better player makes three points, meaning the Wildcats would have to find a point somewhere else to score the upset.
1:38 p.m. – The match is taking shape as the first sets wear on. Each side is dominating a match in the top two spots. Schwenk is dominating Silverio at No. 2, about to serve up a bagel in the first set. Meanwhile, Miller has already taken the first set off Coventry, 6-1. At No. 3, neither side can hold serve, trading four straight breaks. Escamilla has extended her lead at No. 6 to two breaks and is playing very well. Spencer has fallen behind big at No. 4 while Giuggioli fought back from an early break and is serving to make it 2-2. If form holds, it appears UK would get much needed victories at Nos. 2 and 5 and — barring any rallies — come through on courts three and five with Woestmann and Giuggioli, respectively.
2:04 p.m. – Momentum has swung towards Georgia Tech as the match moves forward. A wacky first set went to Amanda Craddock at No. 3 as she took the final four games off Sarah Woestmann to win 7-5. At No. 4, Whitney Spencer has had trouble keeping her shots between the lines against Amanda McDowell, who has played nearly flawless tennis as she readies to score the singles victory. After dominating the first set, 6-0, Joelle Schwenk is finding a tougher go of it in the second, being broken twice to open the set. Serving 1-2 after a big break, Giuggioli dropped four straight games as Christy Striplin took the first set.
It hasn’t been all GT. Carolina Escamilla continues to use a devastating net game to overpower Tarryn Rudman at No. 6. The Yellow Jacket has had no answer for Escamilla coming in and putting away volleys at will. On court one, Coventry has been solid early in the second set, holding serve to get to 2-2.
2:09 p.m. – The swing continues as McDowell completes her win at No. 4 for a 2-0 Georgia Tech lead. Craddock’s late first set momentum carries over to the second with an early break and Kristi Miller breaks Coventry in a battling game that went back and forth before a Coventry slice into the net provided the big break.
2:24 p.m. – Kristi Miller brings Georgia Tech within one of the round of 16 by breaking Kim Coventry in her final three service games to close out the match, 6-1, 6-3. At the same time, Silverio returned the favor to Joelle Schwenk in the second set with a 6-0 blanking to send it to a third. And Sarah Woestmann can’t convert on any of three break point chances and eventually drops the game to fall 4-1. But the final dagger appears ready to come from at No. 5 where Striplin is nearling completion of a victory over Giuggioli.
2:30 p.m. – And it’s over in Atlanta. In a match that was much closer than the final 4-0 score, Georgia Tech pushes through to the round of 16 with a win over Kentucky. The Wildcats season comes to an end at 19-8 overall, the team’s fifth straight season with at least 19 wins.
