The Red and Black

Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: LINDY DUGGER University sophomore Yvette Hyndman returns a serve as her doubles partner Naoko Ueshima stands ready during Wednesday's women's tennis match. [Click to enlarge]

You could almost hear the melodramatic music precede the gasps in the crowd. Every time you were directed one way, you were brought to the edge of your seat to be reminded otherwise.

In a match that had more twists and turns than a midday soap opera, the No. 4 Georgia women's tennis team (6-1) pulled out a 4-3 thriller over No. 24 Clemson (3-6) on Wednesday.

The dual match wasn't decided until the final point, where, on court five, Cameron Ellis defeated Alexandra Luc in a grueling 7-5, 6-4 match.

"We had some long points," Ellis said. "With that backhand slice she had, she wasn't going to miss that much."

The win gave Ellis her 22nd of the year.

"She's a freshman and doing a great job," head coach Jeff Wallace said. "She battled and it was close, but I was comfortable knowing that she would get through it."

Clemson jumped to an early lead, winning the doubles point in a match that seemingly predicted the flow singles play would take. Down 5-1, Monika Dancevic and Kelley Hyndman clawed their way back to move 7-6, where they had triple match point. But they couldn't put the match away.

Dancevic and Hyndman then went up 8-7 with a match point but failed to capture the match. It went to a tiebreaker, and Clemson's Ani Mijacika and Carol Salge claimed the match 9-8 (7-3).

In singles, Georgia captured some momentum early as Adrienne Elsberry and Naoko Ueshima finished their matches quickly in straight sets to put the Bulldogs up 2-1. However, Clemson tied it at 2-2 when Mijacika, who became the new No. 1 player in the country in the new ITA rankings Wednesday night, beat Kelley Hyndman 6-4, 6-1.

"That would have been nice," Hyndman said about the possibility of beating Mijacika. "Ah man, I don't even think I played that bad of a match. I was right there in the first set, I lost 6-4, but there were three other games where I had about five ads and didn't win those games."

Clemson took the lead 3-2 after Federica van Adrichem outlasted Dancevic 6-2, 0-6, 6-4. Minutes later Georgia's Yvette Hyndman tied it up for the Bulldogs at 3-3 with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Balda with Ellis' clincher following moments later.

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