No. 7 Georgia women’s tennis team reaches NCAA finals

Georgia’s No. 7-ranked women’s tennis team continued its roll through the national team tournament on Saturday, defeating sixth-ranked Pepperdine 4-0 to advance to the championship finals on Sunday in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

That the Bulldogs are making this run under first-year head coach Drake Bernstein makes the run even more impressive.

“This team’s got a lot of character, a lot of heart, a lot of fight,” said Bernstein, who succeeded longtime head coach Jeff Wallace after last season. “They’re playing for a lot of people back home.”

Bernstein is the first Georgia coach to reach the NCAA championship match in his first season. Sunday, he’ll try to become the first to win one in his first year.

The Bulldogs (25-4, 12-1 SEC) will face No. 13 Texas A&M, which beat No. 16 Tennessee 4-1 in the other semifinal. Sunday’s title match at Oklahoma State’s Greenwood Tennis Center is set 7:30 p.m. The match will be streamed on ESPN-plus.

Georgia knocked off No. 2 Stanford in the quarterfinals on Friday.

The 2024 SEC champion Bulldogs beat the Aggies three times during the regular season. This will be Georgia’s sixth appearance in the national championship. They’ve won two outdoor titles.

Georgia won the doubles point, then got straight-set wins in singles from Dasha Vidmanova at No. 1, Mell Reasco at No. 3 and Guillermina Grant at No. 5, which clinched the match. Grant and Mai Nirundorn and Anastasiia Lopata and Reasco teamed for wins at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles.

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