USC tennis freshman wins Gamecocks’ first ITA All-American championship
A freshman has made South Carolina women’s tennis program history.
Sarah Hamner, the nation’s No. 2 recruit in the class of 2021, won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships singles final Sunday. The ITA All-American Championships are a meeting of the nation’s top players in Division I collegiate tennis.
Hamner was the first Gamecock to reach the quarterfinals and beyond of the singles main draw tournament. She won eight matches in the week-long event, which was held at the LTP Tennis Club in Mount Pleasant.
“Sarah accomplished something extraordinary this week,” USC women’s head coach Kevin Epley said via a school release. “To win three matches in the qualifying rounds and then march through five matches against the best players in the nation as a freshman is an extraordinarily difficult feat. ... We are all very proud of her and are looking forward to what’s ahead for her and the team this year.”
Hamner took victory over Iowa’s Alexa Noel in the finals match Sunday morning. Hamner claimed victory over the nation’s No. 12 player after leading in two of the match’s three total sets. She led by 5-2 before Noel pulled out of the final set due to injury.
Hamner upset the No. 44 player in the country en route to Sunday’s championship match. She defeated Pepperdine’s Taisiya Pachkaleva in a close semifinals round Saturday that included a tiebreaker set.
Hamner, a freshman from Laurel Springs School in Boca Raton, Florida, became the fourth player from the Southeastern Conference to win the tournament. The last time an SEC player won was in 2017, when Vanderbilt’s Fernanda Contreras took the title.
She is ranked the ITA’s No. 1 newcomer.
