No. 1 Georgia puts away No. 8 NC State in front of home crowd

ATHENS, GA — No. 8 seed NC State women’s tennis needed some things to go right for it to take down No. 1 Georgia in a road environment. And frankly, none of them happened.

As Georgia (22-5) took the doubles point, the window shrank for the Wolfpack (28-5) exponentially. It started at Court 1 doubles as No. 19 Anastasiia Lopata and Patricija Paukstyte trounced the No. 3 ranked duo and reigning national doubles champs Gabriella Broadfoot and Victoria Osuigwe 6-2.

And in the spots that NC State relied on to win the ACC Championship, the Pack could not match the level of the Bulldogs. On Court 1, No. 19 Lopata downed No. 26 Mia Slama with relative ease 6-4, 6-2. On Court 4, No. 93 Emma Dong took the first set versus No. 66 Lavinia Tanasie.

In the end, it came down to Courts 2 and 3 as Georgia's No. 7 Aysegul Mert and No. 64 Deniz Dilek both lost their first sets, but from there controlled the rest of the match to help the Bulldogs cruise to victory.

Georgia did not have its typical No. 4 player, No. 61 Anastasiia Gureva, in the lineup, instead placing Patricija Paukstyte at No. 6 and moving the others up a spot.

The lone point for the Wolfpack came from Court 5 as freshman No. 2 recruit out of IMG Academy, Victoria Osuigwe, dominated No. 81 Sofia Rojas 6-3, 6-2 to help the Pack gain some momentum.

But that momentum was quickly extinguished as the match tilted further into Georgia's favor and the crowd got involved.

It was a packed house at Dan Magill Tennis Center. Expect it to be the same way tomorrow night as Georgia faces the winner of UNC–Texas A&M at 7 p.m. for a spot in the National Championship match.