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ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – There are some seasons in program history that are forever remembered. And those seasons don’t always end with a championship. For the University of North Georgia women’s tennis team, 2024 was that season. The team’s best season in history ended with a matchup against No. 2-ranked Nova Southeastern in the national semifinals.
Although the Knighthawks suffered a hard-fought 4-0 loss to the Sharks on Thursday, this year’s team proved what they are made of and set an achievable level of expectation for the future.
“I told the guys after the game that it’s not just about today, it’s about the culmination of this season and what they’ve accomplished,” head coach Kent Norseworthy said. “We’ve had a lot of adversity this year and we’ve had to win a lot of tough 4-3 games to get to this point.”
UNG’s chances to beat last year’s national championship runner-up began in a doubles match earlier in the day.
Unfortunately, the Nighthawks quickly fell behind 5-1 at both No. 1 and No. 2 doubles, and on the No. 3 doubles court, UNG’s most winless doubles pair of seniors Valentina Askarlunz and Caroline Reis led 3-2.
As the match progressed, the No. 1 seeds, seniors Johanna Lippert and Victory Vojkiova, emerged victorious, taking the score to 5-2, but lost the next set to the No. 2 women’s doubles pairing in the National Collegiate Tennis Association, Natalie Espinal and Freya Davis.
Senior Svetlana Tetelina and junior Angelina Linnikova each won two matches to bring the score to 5-3, but lost the final game to lose 6-3.
Going into the singles match, UNG was down 1-0, which was not unusual for the Nighthawks, as they had already come back from three dropped points in doubles matches this season.
Needing to win four singles matches, UNG started strong, taking brief leads in the opening sets in the No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches.
While Lynnikova and Wojczykova fell behind in their first and second singles matches, respectively, losing the first set, Lippert got off to a strong start at third singles, leading 3-2.
At the same time, Askaluntz led 5-4 in the opening set in the No. 6 singles match and junior Ashley Moinard led early 5-4 at No. 4 singles. Teterina dominated the opening set of the No. 5 singles match and cruised to a 6-2 victory for the win.
But Nova proved its resilience as the Sharks stormed back in a number of singles matches.
No. 6 Ita Habekovic won three straight games to take the first set from Askar Luncs, 7-5, before Davis came back to win the first set at No. 3 singles against Lippert. Both Lynnikova and Wojczykova had already lost the first sets of their respective singles matches.
As the match entered the second set, things were looking dire for UNG.
Linnikova lost 6-0, 6-1 to ITA No. 2 Espinal to secure Nova’s first singles win and a 2-0 lead. In a heated battle between Lippert and Davis, Davis won 6-4, 6-1. Just minutes later, Wojcikova faced match point against ITA No. 18 Lexi Weir.
After losing the first set 6-3 and trailing 5-3 in the next, Wojcikova’s return shot soared over the baseline to give the Sharks the victory and return to the national championship for the second consecutive year.
The Knighthawks’ season is over, and although it didn’t end the way they would have liked, the seven members who will be donning the blue and white this year won’t soon forget what they accomplished this year.
“The whole season was one I’ll never forget,” Norseworthy said. “They were a very tenacious team and just kept going, and I couldn’t be more proud.”
When you take a step back and put on paper what this team has accomplished this season, you realize it was a truly remarkable feat.
Prior to this year, UNG had only two players in program history with 20 or more singles wins in a season. This year, three players accomplished that. One of them, Linnikova, earned an ITA singles ranking of No. 6 in the country, the highest in program history, and then went on to win 22 singles matches in a season, tying the program’s all-time record.
Those same three singles players (Lynnikova, Askarluncz and Moynaar) recorded three of the top five singles seasons in program history, and at 21-2 for a .913 winning percentage, Moynaar and Askarluncz are tied for the single best season of singles play in UNG women’s tennis history.
The historic honors continue in doubles. As mentioned above, Reis and Askalunz combined for 23 wins this year, more than any other player in a single season in doubles. Their .884 winning percentage completely shattered the best record in school history. Linnikova and Teterina also combined for 18-5 in doubles this year, giving them the third-best doubles season in program history based on win percentage.
“Joe [Lippert] Lana [Teterina]our four years [players]”They’re just such great people. You couldn’t ask for better people. That’s the main thing. They’ve put in a lot of work this year. I’m so proud of them. It’s great to see them take that next step,” Norseworthy said.
Lippert became the winningest singles player in program history at this week’s NCAA Tournament. Her two wins over Charleston and Academy of Art gave her 54 career singles victories, passing UNG graduate Vaishali Jorge, who had 52 wins from 2017 to 2022. Lippert also tied Jorge for the most doubles wins in program history with 56 wins over four years.
Teterina also has 36 career singles wins, which is fifth-most in Nighthawk women’s tennis history.
No team had ever won 19 straight games. No team had ever won 25 games total. No team had ever won the Peach Belt Conference Tournament. No team had ever made it past the Elite Eight. This team did it, and they will be remembered forever for it.
