Athens, GA – Playing in its second-consecutive NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship, the Austin Peay State University (APSU) women’s tennis team dropped a 4-0 first-round decision to No. 3 national seed Georgia, Friday, at that the Dan McGill Tennis Complex.
Austin Peay State University (12-4) played its first-round match of the NCAA Tournament at Georgia (21-1) for the second-straight season and after falling to Wake Forest in 2019, the Governors got to square off with the host Bulldogs in this year’s tournament.
In the first doubles match to go final, Georgia’s duo of Morgan Coppoc and Elena Christofi knocked off Jana Leder and Aleks Topalovic in No. 2 doubles to claim the early advantage. No. 3 doubles were the next to go on the board and the Bulldogs claimed the doubles point when Alee Clayton and Ania Hertel downed Ana Albertson and Honoka Nakanishi.
With the doubles point decided, the No. 1 doubles match was left unfinished with Fabienne Schmidt and Danielle Morris trailing, 4-3, against the No. 6 ranked doubles pairing in the NCAA.
In singles action, the No. 4 match was the first to go final with Coppoc knocking off Topalovic to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 advantage. No. 1 singles was the next match to wrap up, with the No. 4 player in the country knocking off Schmidt and stretching Georgia’s lead to 3-0. The Bulldogs were able to score the match-clinching point in No. 6 singles when Christofi beat Nakanishi to bring an end to the match and wrap up the 2021 season for the Govs.
With the match decided, Morris trailed, 4-2, in the second set of No. 2 singles after dropping the opening set to Georgia’s Lea Ma. The No. 3 and No. 5 singles matches were also left unfinished, with Leder and Martina Paladini-Jennings both trailing in the second set after dropping the first set to the Bulldogs.
With the 2021 season at its conclusion, be sure to follow the Governors women’s tennis team throughout the offseason by checking back at LetsGoPeay.com or by following on Twitter (@AustinPeayWTN).
APSU Quotably
Austin Peay State University Head Coach Ross Brown
On a second-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament
“It’s sensational. We lose two players this year and for the rest of the girls coming up I know they can play better matches than what they played today. So they got a taste of what it’s like, how much fun it is to succeed, how much fun it is to win a conference championship, and how much fun it is to come play in one of these events. Hopefully that is motivation, it should be, to work hard this summer and comeback to improve our tennis so we can be here again next year.”
On this season
“It’s always fun to get here, but it does make it sweet because we had a few holes after losing the first two matches in conference play and we had to fill those holes in the ship. I always believed we could put it together and the conference finals were just a tremendous effort from all of our ladies and I’m just very, very pleased.”
Austin Peay State University Senior Fabienne Schmidt
On a second-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament
“It’s just amazing. I don’t think we really expected to come back to NCAA’s before we played the OVC Championship. It was amazing to come back and everyone was so excited to be here. Getting to actually play Georgia this time was a great experience, I played No. 4 in the country, so it was an amazing experience.”
On her four years at Austin Peay… “It was amazing and I am going to miss it.”
Results
No. 3 Georgia def. Austin Peay, 4-0
Doubles
1. #6 Katarina Jokic/Ariana Arseneault (UGA) vs. Fabienne Schmidt/Danielle Morris (APSU) 4-3, unfinished
2. Morgan Coppoc/Elena Christofi (UGA) def. Jana Leder/Aleks Topalovic (APSU) 6-0
3. Alee Clayton/Ania Hertel (UGA) def. Honoka Nakanishi/Ana Albertson (APSU) 6-2
Order of finish: 2, 3*
Singles
1. #4 Katarina Jokic (UGA) def. Fabienne Schmidt (APSU) 6-0, 6-2
2. #55 Lea Ma (UGA) vs. Danielle Morris (APSU) 6-4, 4-2, unfinished
3. #20 Meg Kowalski (UGA) vs. Jana Leder (APSU) 6-2, 3-2, unfinished
4. #68 Morgan Coppoc (UGA) def. Aleks Topalovic (APSU) 6-0, 6-0
5. #52 Marta Gonzalez (UGA) vs. Martina Paladini-Jennings (APSU) 6-1, 5-0, unfinished
6. Elena Christofi (UGA) def. Honoka Nakanishi (APSU) 6-0, 6-2
Order of finish: 4, 1, 6*
