The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Florida
Ole Miss Falls To No. 3 Florida
4/13/2001 | Women's Tennis
April 13, 2001
OXFORD, Miss. - Despite a valiant effort, the 28th-ranked Ole Miss women?s tennis team (8-11, 2-8) dropped a 6-1 decision to No. 3 Florida Friday afternoon at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center. Florida (17-1, 9-0) claimed the opening doubles point with wins at all three positions. After the Gators took the No. 1 match, Lindsey Dawaf and Annika Bengtsson clinched the point with an 8-4 win over Audra Adams and Camilla Gould at No. 3 doubles.
Freshman Sabrina Peppl lost to Julia Scaringe 6-3, 6-3 at No. 5 singles and then Adams fell to Bengtsson 6-0, 6-2 at the No. 6 spot to give Florida a 3-0 lead. Mira Radu got a huge win, downing Stephanie Hazlett 6-3, 6-2 on court four to make it 3-1.
Alesya Ignatieva was down 6-1, 5-2 in her match to Lady Gator freshman Dawaf and battled back in the second, before Dawaf closed it out 6-4 to clinch the match for Florida.
"In most of our matches, we played as well as Florida did or better in stretches, but the problem is that we did not sustain our best effort over the course of a complete match on enough courts," head coach Jerry Montgomery said. "I am confident that we will respond positively to this defeat and it will make us a better team. We have our best tennis ahead of us and we are excited about the opportunities we have."
Lady Rebel freshman Hanna-Katri Aalto and 22nd-ranked Jessica Lehnhoff played to a first-set tiebreaker. Lehnhoff won the tiebreaker 7-2 and went on to win the second set 6-1.
Julie DeRoo, ranked No. 37 in singles, was smelling an upset of No. 11 Whitney Laiho at No. 1 singles. DeRoo won the first set 7-5 but Laiho came back to take the second set 6-4. With the match already won, the two agreed to play a supertiebreaker. Laiho claimed the first three points on her way to a 10-5 win for the final 6-1 score.
"When you are playing a team like Florida, as talented and deep as they are, you have to play each point as if your down match point," assistant coach Whitt Taber said. "Our effort was great. We just got outplayed today."
The Lady Rebels will conclude the regular season Monday at Auburn in a 2:00 p.m. match, before heading to Starkville for the SEC Tournament April 19-22.
#3 Florida 6
#28 Ole Miss 1
SINGLES#1 Whitney Laiho (UF) def. Julie DeRoo (OM) 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10-5)
#2 Jessica Lehnhoff (UF) def. Hanna-Katri Aalto (OM) 7-6(2), 6-1
#3 Lindsey Dawaf (UF) def. Alesya Ignatieva (OM) 6-1, 6-4
#4 Mira Radu (OM) def. Stephanie Hazlett (UF) 6-3, 6-2
#5 Julia Scaringe (UF) def. Sabrina Peppl (OM) 6-3, 6-3
#6 Annika Bengtsson (UF) def. Audra Adams (OM) 6-0, 6-2
DOUBLES
#1 Laiho-Lehnhoff (UF) def. DeRoo-Radu (OM) 8-1
#2 Hazlett-Scaringe (UF) def. Aalto-Ignatieva (OM) 8-6
#3 Dawaf-Bengtsson (UF) def. Adams-Gould (OM )8-4
