South Carolina women’s tennis ready for home regional

When an athlete calls a teammate out, it’s often considered a sign of division on a team.

For South Carolina’s women’s tennis team, it’s part of building strength.

“My last two years, people have been kind of scared to do that,” No. 1 singles player Caroline Dailey said. “But I think that’s what makes teams great is when someone has the courage to call a teammate out for, maybe, not quite living up to the standard, or something of that nature.

“No one is down about it and comes out with a (bad) attitude about it. They’re right back.”

She and her teammates haven’t held back, and it has produced a campaign strong enough to secure the home NCAA tournament regional they’re currently preparing for. The Gamecocks (18-7, ranked No. 13) will face Winthrop at 5 p.m. Friday.

Coach Kevin Epley said his team doesn’t feature any thin-skinned players.

Still, they’ve taken a long road to reach this spot.

“We had a young team in February,” Epley said. “I think we had some rough losses and just didn’t really know what we were going to do this year. There was one point we were looking around, wondering if we were going to win any SEC matches.

“Beating Clemson sort of defined the year for us.”

The 4-3 win was the first against the Tigers in Epley’s tenure and helped spark a run that saw the Gamecocks start 6-0 in conference play.

South Carolina’s success is built on depth, with strength concentrated at the bottom of the lineup. Dailey is 6-16 on the season facing opponents’ top players, but players in the No. 4-6 spots went 42-17, with Hadley Berg (24-8 overall), Brigit Folland (24-6) and Ximena Siles Luna (10-5) getting most of the work.

Epley said part of the group boasts maturity, with a senior, junior and sophomore in the mix (there are two freshmen in the top three). With strength there, the team can usually count on a couple wins, meaning they need to find only two more for a win.

South Carolina has not reached the Sweet 16 since 2009, and has done it once since 1999. To reach Tulsa, they’ll have to top Winthrop and then best either No. 39 Princeton or No. 17 Georgia Tech.

After three years of failing to reach that level under the current staff, the thick-skinned Gamecocks are not shy about what they think they can accomplish. They did enough to get these matches on their court, why not more?

“For the most part, the teams that host are the ones that are able to go to the Sweet 16,” Dailey said. “I don’t see why this isn’t going to be our program breakthrough, and we’re going to make it all the way out to Tulsa.”