The University of Mississippi Athletics
Women's Tennis Players are Nationally-Ranked
6/21/1999 | Women's Tennis
September 15, 1998
PRINCETON, N.J. - Five members of the Ole Miss women's tennis team were among the top collegiate players in the nation in the preseason edition of the Rolex Rankings released Tuesday by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The first team ranking will be done at the end of fall competition.
Leading the way, is three-time All-America and senior Agnes Muzamel, who returns to the top 10 at No. 9, after finishing the 1998 campaign ranked No. 13. Muzamel completed last year with a 29-13 overall record and helped guide the Lady Rebels to their first NCAA quarterfinal appearance in five years and a third consecutive top 10 national ranking. A three-time All-SEC selection, Muzamel needs only 27 wins this year to become the all-time career singles leader at Ole Miss. Former four-time All-American Paloma Collantes has 123 career victories.
Junior Ivona Mihailova moved up 11 spots from a final 1998 ranking of No. 29 to No. 18 in the nation. Mihailova ended the year with a 29-16 overall record and was the SEC Singles Champion. With Mihailova's ranking, Ole Miss is one of only two schools to have two players represented in the top 20 in singles. The other school is Georgia. Courtenay Chapman, also a senior for the Lady Rebels, is ranked 94th in the preseason singles rankings and also teams with Muzamel for a No. 4 ranking in doubles. Chapman went 24-15 last year in singles and 22-7 with Muzamel in doubles. Muzamel and Chapman have been in the top 10 of the national doubles rankings for the past three years.
"It is exciting for us to have five singles players ranked in the top 100 nationally in collegiate women's tennis, head coach Jerry Montgomery said. "We are particularly proud of Agnes Muzamel and Ivona Mihailova both being ranked in the top 20 in singles and Muzamel and Courtenay Chapman being No. 4 in doubles. This gives us a lot of momentum going into the fall season and challenges us to prove ourselves worthy of these rankings."
Two newcomers to the Lady Rebels are nationally-ranked. Celeste Frey, who transfered from Florida International is ranked 74th and Eva Doman, a freshman from Budapest, Hungary, is ranked No. 98. Frey played No. 1 for FIU last year and finished with a 20-5 overall record. Doman was ranked No. 3 in Girl's 18 Singles in Hungary.
In addition to Muzamel and Chapman, Mihailova and her sister Irena are ranked 44th in doubles.
The Lady Rebels are getting ready for the National Clay Court Championships to be held Sept. 22-27 at the Suburban Country Club in Baltimore, Md.
ITA ROLEX COLLEGIATE TENNIS RANKINGS
SINGLES - Agnes Muzamel - #9 Ivona Mihailova - #18 Celeste Frey - #74 Courtenay Chapman - #94 Eva Doman - #98 DOUBLES - Muzamel-Chapman - #4 Mihailova-Irena Mihailova - #44
