The N.C. State women’s tennis team spent the weekend in Athens, Ga., competing in the 2013 Bulldog Classic, hosted by the University of Georgia. The Wolfpack participated in both singles and doubles play against players from Old Dominion, South Florida and Georgia.

Senior Joelle Kissell, who is ranked No. 45 in the nation, had a successful weekend, and she won her singles on Friday and split her doubles matches. The Wolfpack’s No. 1 player defeated Nokol Hristova of Old Dominion 6-2, 6-2 and teamed with freshman Liza Fieldsend to defeat Vera Bessonova and Olga Martinez of South Florida 8-5. In their other doubles match, Kissell and Fieldsend fell to Lauren Herring and Maho Kowase of host Georgia, 8-1. Fieldsend also defeated Old Dominion’s Ivana Vukovic 6-2, 6-3 to give the Pack its only other singles win of the day.

Juniors Elisha Hande and Nicole Martinez struggled in doubles, falling to Georgia’s Kate Fuller and Silvia Garcia, the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, by a score of 8-3. In their second match of the day, they lost in a 9-7 heartbreaker to Kayla Rizzolo and Loreto Alonso of South Florida. Hande also dropped a tight singles match to Marijana Novakovic of Old Dominion 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(4).

State’s other participating doubles team consisted of junior Sophie Nelson and senior Christy Sipes. They dropped a pair of matches, 8-1 to South Florida’s Olaya Garrido and Fanny Fricassi and 8-0 to Mia King and Lilly Kimbell of Georgia.

On Saturday Kissell and Fieldsend teamed up again to defeat ODU’s Novakovic and Ingrid Vojcinakova 8-5. Kissell also held off Rizzolo 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 to give her yet another victory. Martinez rebounded from losing the first set to beat USF’s Hailey Grillo 4-6, 7-5, 6-0. The Wolfpack’s other singles win came by a default when Sipes’ opponent was injured just one game into the match.

Wolfpack winners in singles on Sunday included Martinez, who beat Grillo once again, this time in a 10-point tiebreaker after the players split sets, and Nelson, who rolled over Faith Atiso of ODU 6-1, 6-1. In the singles tournament, Kissell fell to Fuller in the first round 10-3.

The Pack’s next tournament is the Northwestern Invitational in Evanston, Ill., from Oct. 4-6.