Stillwater, Okla. – Graudate Ayana Akli and junior Sarah Hamner concluded the season for the South Carolina women’s tennis team on Wednesday in the NCAA Doubles Tournament. The Gamecocks fell in the Round of 16 to the No. 4 seed.
Akli and Hamner faced a familiar opponent in 7th-ranked Mary Stoiana and Mia Kupres of Texas A&M. The Gamecock duo got off strong in the first set, claiming a break mid-way through and holding the lead to the end to take the set 6-4.
The second set got off to a rough start for the Gamecocks with the duo each giving up their first service games to trail 0-4. They were then able to break back to cut the Aggies lead to 1-4, but the Aggies broke back once again and were able to serve out the set 6-1.
With the two teams splitting sets, the decision came down to a ten-point tiebreaker that also started off shakey for the Gamecock pair. Stoiana and Kupres jumped out to a 3-0 lead to start and Akli and Hamner weren’t able to get much going, still trailing by 3-8.
With the match on the line, South Carolina rallied for a five-point run to tie things up at 8-8, but the Aggies never waivered, going on to take the next two points to win the tiebreaker 10-8.
The pairs departure from the NCAA Doubles Tournament marks the end of the 2023-24 season for South Carolina. The Gamecocks wrapped the season ranked No. 20 in the nation in the final ITA Team Rankings.
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Doubles Round of 16
(7) Mary Stoiana/Mia Kupres (TAMU) def. (28) Ayana Akli/Sarah Hamner (SC) 4-6, 6-1 10-8