GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Furman's Katarina Kozarov and Julia Adams will begin play this week at the 2021 NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship, which will be held May 23-28 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. Singles competition begins on Sunday, with doubles action starting on Monday.
A senior from Novi Sad, Serbia, Kozarov, the only seeded player not from a Power 5 school, is seeded among the top 16 and will square off against Michaela Gordon of Stanford Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the tournament's opening round. Sixty-four players are competing for the title.
Kozarov, who currently ranks 16th nationally, is making her second individual singles championship appearance after also earning the Southern Conference's automatic bid in 2019. A three-time SoCon Player of the Year, Kozarov became just the second All-American in the history of the Paladin program in 2020 and has ranked as high as seventh nationally in singles during the 2021 season. A first team all-conference selection for both singles and doubles, Kozarov notched a 23-1 record at flight one singles with eight victories over ranked opponents and was a perfect 7-0 in league play.
Gordon, a senior from Saratoga, Calif., is currently ranked 34th nationally after putting together a 9-6 singles dual record this spring. A four-time All-American, she was honored as the ITA National Rookie of the Year in 2018.
Adams, who hails from Knoxville, Tenn., will team up with Kozarov in the national doubles championship. Furman will face 11th-ranked Ally Bojczuk and Julia Lilien of Notre Dame Monday in the first round.
The Paladin duo, which also earned the league's automatic bid and currently ranks 40th nationally, is one of 32 doubles teams which will compete for the title. Adams and Kozarov, who ranked as high as 16th nationally during the 2021 season, tallied a 20-3 record at flight one, including a 5-1 SoCon mark.
All matches shall be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
Live scoring and streaming of the championship will be available at https://www.furmanpaladins.com.
