The University of Mississippi Athletics
Women Netters Down Kentucky at SEC Tournament
6/21/1999 | Women's Tennis
April 23, 1999
BATON ROUGE, La. -. Despite playing without its top player, the third-seeded Ole Miss women's tennis team downed sixth-seeded Kentucky 5-0 Friday in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament at Dub Robinson Tennis Stadium. The Lady Rebels improve to 19-4 on the year and 10-2 in the SEC and will meet the winner of the Georgia/Arkansas match at 2:00 p.m. Saturday.
"My players showed so much heart today," head coach Jerry Montgomery said. "We didn't have our No. 1 player (Agnes Muzamel) so this was a real challenge for us to go out and play at a level better than what we've been playing. Everyone of our players rose to the challenge. I have a lot of respect for Kentucky and coach Mark Guilbeau. They have a really good team."
With Lady Rebel senior Agnes Muzamel sick and unable to play, everyone had to move up a spot, and Irena Mihailova played at No. 6 singles for only the third time this season. The team rose to the occasion and won four of the five matches in straight sets.
Courtenay Chapman got things going with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Kelly Brown at No. 3 singles. Celeste Frey, playing No. 1 singles, downed 28th-ranked Massoumeh Emami 6-1, 6-4. She needs one more win to notch her 35th victory for the year.
Ivona Mihailova won her 25th match of the season, coming back to beat Christy Sigurski 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 at No. 2 singles to put Ole Miss up 3-0. Mariana Eberle defeated Carolina Mayorga 7-5, 6-3 at No. 4 singles to win her 11th victory in 12 matches.
Irena Mihailova, playing in only her third match of the season, held off Shannon Stafford 6-0, 7-6(3) to give the Lady Rebels the victory. She is now 3-0 on the season.
The Lady Rebels have now won six in a row and 10 of their last 11 matches and remain undefeated when they win at least four of the singles. Ole Miss also recorded their eighth shutout of the season.
Ole Miss posted a 7-2 win over Arkansas in the regular season and lost twice to Georgia, a 5-2 decision at the National Team Indoor and a 5-4 setback in Athens. Ole Miss and Georgia have met in the SEC Tournament semifinals recently (1997) with the Lady Bulldogs coming out on top 5-3.
1999 WOMEN'S TENNIS SEC TOURNAMENT Baton Rouge, La.
No.3 seed Ole Miss 5, No. 6 seed Kentucky 0
SINGLESNo. 1 Celeste Frey (OM) def. Massoumeh Emami (UK) 6-1, 6-4No. 2 Ivona Mihailova (OM) def. Christy Sigurski (UK) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0No 3 Courtenay Chapman (OM) def. Kelly Brown (UK) 6-3, 6-3No. 4 Mariana Eberle (OM) def. Carolina Mayorga (UK) 7-5, 6-3No. 5 Alesya Ignatieva (OM) vs. Brooke Skeen (UK) suspendedNo. 6 Irena Mihailova (OM) def. Shannon Stafford (UK) 6-0, 7-6(3)matched clinched in singles, doubles were not played.
