The University of Mississippi Athletics
Women's Tennis Ends Year At No. 18
6/1/2000 | Women's Tennis
June 1, 2000
OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss women's tennis team ended the year ranked No. 18 in the final WingspanBank.com Collegiate Rankings released Thursday. This marks the 11th year in a row, that the Lady Rebels have finished among the nation's Top 25.
Ole Miss ended the year with a 16-8 overall record and narrowly missed out on their fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. They posted a 8-3 record in the SEC and finished among the top four in the league for the 14th time overall.
NCAA Champion Georgia claimed the No. 1 spot, followed by Stanford, Florida, California, Wake Forest, UCLA, Duke, Texas, Arizona State and Pepperdine rounding out the top 10. The SEC had a total of seven teams in the Top 25 with Vanderbilt, Tennessee, South Carolina and LSU completing the list. Eleven teams from the SEC ended the year nationally-ranked.
"I am very proud of what we've achieved this year with another top 20 finish and with four individuals nationally-ranked in the top 40," head coach Jerry Montgomery said. "It is especially significant to me that we defeated every team in the `SEC West Division' by a convincing score and ended up with an academic GPA of 3.62 for the spring semester.
"We had four seniors Ivona Mihailova, Celeste Frey, Mariana Eberle and Irena Mihailova who were model student-athletes and who finished their careers impressively in the classroom and on the court."
Ole Miss led the nation with four players ranked among the top 40 in singles and had five players nationally-ranked. Ivona ended the year ranked No. 24 with a 23-11 record. She earned All-SEC honors for the third time and competed in the NCAA Singles Championships three years. Off the court, Ivona made the GTE/CoSIDA District VI Academic All-America team.
Freshman Mira Radu finished her first campaign ranked No. 37 in the nation. She led the Lady Rebels with a 35-12 record and qualified for the NCAA Singles Championships, advancing to the second round.
The Lady Rebels' other freshman, Julie DeRoo, completed the year ranked No. 39. DeRoo posted a 23-12 record and also reached the second round of the NCAA Singles Championships upsetting the nation's fourth-ranked player in the first round.
Frey ended her career ranked No. 40 in the nation. She participated in the NCAA Singles Championships for the second year in a row finishing with a 25-13 record. Eberle earned a final ranking of No. 94 with a 24-9 record.
