CLEMSON, S.C. – The No. 4 University of North Georgia (UNG) women's tennis team punched its ticket to the 2025 NCAA Division II Women's Tennis Championship Tuesday afternoon with a 4-0 victory over No. 9 Columbus State (CSU) in the 2025 Southeast Regional. 

Hosted by North Georgia with the generosity of the Clemson tennis teams at the Duckworth Family Tennis Facility in Clemson, S.C., the Nighthawks shutout the Cougars in their third and final meeting of the season. 

For the second consecutive season, UNG returns to its National Championship site. Last season, the Nighthawks made a run to the National Semifinals for the first time in program history. Now they will look to improve on that record-setting performance from a year ago.

After the team went 25-2 and broke seemingly every record in existence last year, it was hard to imagine this year's team doing something for the first time in program history. However, that's exactly what happened Tuesday after the Nighthawks defeated their PBC rivals for the third time this season. 

"It's a coin flip when you play Columbus State. I'm shocked we were able to actually beat them three times in a season… I have a ton of respect for Columbus State. Evan [Isaacs] is a friend of mine and the program is just run very well."

After losing key pieces from last season's historic team, head coach Kent Norsworthy knew it would be a challenge to perform at the same level as last year.

"There were a lot of questions, even going into February. Our first matches we weren't playing all that great, we weren't clicking in all of our lines, there were some things that we had to continue to focus on through March," said Norsworthy.

Tuesday's victory began in the doubles matches as freshman Linn Goerdes and junior Emily Bush dominated the opposition for a 6-2 victory. 

Then in #1 doubles, Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) No. 7 pairing Angelina Linnikova and Carolina Reis clinched the early point with a thrilling 6-3 win over No. 5 Mariana Ramirez and Nikoline Gullacksen. 

Ascending to the seventh-ranked pairing in the country, seniors Linnikova and Reis have now won 10 of 11 doubles matches this season. 

The Nighthawks took a 1-0 lead and commanded control of the momentum into singles play. 

In the #1 singles match, ITA women's singles No. 2 Linnikova was on the precipice of making program history. Going for her 23rd win of the season, the senior would have to take down No. 10 Gullacksen in order to do so. 

Facing Gullacksen for the third time this spring, Linnikova knew where to pick her spots. She attacked Gullacksen the entire match and dominated for a 6-3, 6-1 victory. With a sparkling 23-0 record, Linnikova has now broken the record for the most singles victories in one season in program history. 

"Angie's been amazing. She's been the rock this year. Everyone kind of looks at her and says 'okay, that line is taken care of'," said Norsworthy. "She battled through some adversity and she just kept coming back, but the important thing is she did the work over the summer and in the fall to get here." 

At 61-6 in her three-year playing career, the Irkutsk, Russia native now holds the UNG records for career singles wins and singles wins in a season. Her victory Tuesday–the ninth over a nationally ranked opponent this season–put the Nighthawks ahead 2-0 in the match. 

From there, Reis battled in the #5 singles match through two difficult sets. 

After trailing to Isadora Oliveira Marcondes 3-1 in the first set, Reis roared back in the match by winning five of the next six games to come away with a 6-4 win. In the second set, she took a 3-0 lead early and fended off a comeback from Marcondes who eventually tied the set at 3-3. 

From there Reis pulled out a 6-4 victory after a clutch performance in the final game as she won the back-and-forth battle to put UNG within range of clinching. 

Ahead 3-0 overall, the attention then shifted to the next closest victorious Nighthawk and that was freshman Vasilissa Kupriyanova. 

The rookie proved herself to be a clutch player under pressure in the first set. In a tiebreaker to win the opener, Kupriyanova dispatched Laura Pescikova by winning seven straight points to take the first set.

Cheered on by her fellow countrywoman Linnikova, the Ryazan, Russia native took momentum and a lead into the late stages of set two. 

With a 5-1 lead in the set, Kupriyanova came back from a 30-15 deficit to force a match point at 40-30. However, Pescikova dragged out the final point and earned a victory to take her second game in the set. 

No longer entertained by the idea of playing with her food, Kupriyanova dominated the final set. She won the first point and lost the second. After that, the rookie rolled to three straight victories to force match point once more. 

After a short rally, Kupriyanova aimed her shot at the back left corner of the court, forcing Pescikova to her back hand. Pescikova jumped to her left and swung the racket hard with both hands. The ball whistled over the net with too much pace. It bounced out of bounds to Kupriyanova's left who immediately keeled over in celebration. 

Her on-looking teammates stormed the court to huddle the Russian rookie. The three Nighthawks that were in the midst of their own singles matches dropped their rackets and immediately sprinted over to court 3. A celebration and coronation was underway. 

While not an unexpected performance from Kupriyanova in #3 singles, her win on Tuesday symbolizes what this entire season has been for UNG. Despite ups and downs, it's been a collection of eight women who want nothing more than to play for a national title. Eight women who are willing to do whatever it takes to get there.

"It's different people. We lost these in the regular season [to CSU], we lost at #4 and #5 [singles] twice. Today we flipped them," said Norsworthy after the match. It's just different people every day."

The different contributors on this team are what has made the Nighthawks unique. All six primary singles competitors have nine or more wins this season. Five of them have double-digit victories. All have clinched an overall match victory at least once this year.

With the pride evident on his face and in his voice, Norsworthy said, "They just want to go. They just wanted to go on the trip, and that made all the difference." 

Tuesday's hard earned victory puts UNG through to the NCAA Women's Tennis Championship for the second time in program history. 

Now the Nighthawks will await the reseeding of the nation's final 16 teams who will meet May 20-24 at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Fla.