The top-ranked Georgia Gwinnett women's tennis team ended the 2016 regular season with a 6-3 victory over NCAA Division III No. 1 Emory (Ga.) on Sunday.

The match, which took six hours and six minutes to complete, started outdoors but then moved indoors as rain and lightning entered the metro-Atlanta area.

Georgia Gwinnett's 6-3 victory is the first in the program's four-year history against Emory as the Eagles lead the all-time series 4-1.

"This is one of the biggest wins in our program's history," stated GGC head coach Chase Hodges.  "Emory has an outstanding team.  Picking up a 6-3 victory is huge for us as we prepare for and head to NAIA Nationals in Mobile, Ala., in a couple of weeks.  Our doubles play was the difference in today's win."

The Grizzlies (14-2) dominated in doubles play, sweeping the Eagles (23-5) for the 3-0 lead.  The duo of Chiara Di Salvo and Alyona Vasilyeva picked up the first Grizzly win of the afternoon with an 8-6 victory over Bridget Harding and Katarina Su at No. 2 doubles.  Valeria Podda and Sophie Feller, the top-ranked doubles team in the NAIA, pushed the GGC lead to 2-0 with a 9-7 victory at No. 1 doubles over the Emory duo of Madison Gordon and Anna Fuhr.  To wrap up the doubles sweep, Helga Pinones-Haltenhoff and Klara Dohnalova defeated Michelle Satterfield and Paula Castro 8-6.

The Eagles cut the Grizzly lead to 3-1 at No. 2 singles as Satterfield defeated GGC's Feller 6-0, 6-1.  Moments later, the Grizzlies moved one point away from clinching when Podda picked up the fourth Grizzly victory of the afternoon, defeating Harding 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.  Emory's second point of the match came at No. 4 singles as Gordon defeated Di Salvo in three sets (1-6, 6-1, 6-3).

Dohnalova was the star performer of the match as the junior survived a three-set match that ended in a 7-5 tiebreaker in GGC's favor.  She dropped the first set 7-6, but won the final two sets (6-2, 7-6) to clinch the Grizzlies' first victory over the Eagles.

GGC and Emory split the final two matches of the afternoon as Pinones-Haltenhoff (6-3, 6-3) won at the No. 6 spot while Emory's Castro (6-3, 7-6) captured the final Eagle victory at the No. 5 post.

The Grizzlies now return to Lawrenceville to prepare for the 2016 NAIA National Championships in Mobile, Ala.  The national tournament begins on Tuesday, May 17 and concludes with the championship match on Saturday, May 21.

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