The University of Mississippi Athletics
Women's Tennis To Face Alabama in SEC Tournament
4/18/2001 | Women's Tennis
April 18, 2001
2001 SEC Tournament Bracket in PDF Format
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RECORD: 9-11 (3-8 SEC)
NATIONAL RANKING: #29 (ITA/WingspanBank.com)
NEXT UP: SEC Tournament, April 19-22
WHERE: Starkville, Miss.
OPPONENT: Alabama - Thursday, 2:00 PM
LADY REBELS GEAR UP FOR SEC TOURNEY
The nation's top tennis conference will descend on Starkville, Miss., this weekend for the SEC Women's Tennis Championships. Ole Miss heads into the SEC Tournament with a 8-11 overall record. The Lady Rebels finished 3-8 in the SEC regular season and enter the tournament as the No. 9 seed. They will face the No. 8 seed Alabama, in the first round Thursday at 2:00 p.m. at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
OLE MISS IN THE SEC TOURNAMENT
Ole Miss has won the SEC Tournament once in the history of the program. In 1999, the Lady Rebels knocked off Georgia and defending NCAA Champion Florida to claim their first ever SEC title. Ole Miss hosted last year's SEC Tournament, but suffered a disappointing 5-4 loss to Tennessee in the quarterfinals.
LADY REBELS DOWN AUBURN
The Lady Rebels won all six singles matches, including five in straight sets, to post a 6-1 win over Auburn on Monday afternoon at the Luther Young Tennis Complex. Auburn got on the board first by claiming the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and 3 positions. Coming into the match, the Lady Rebels were 1-10 when losing the doubles point, but Monday would be different. Sophomore Julie DeRoo downed Carolina Maurer 6-3, 6-0 to even the match 1-1. Alesya Ignatieva cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Liz Sauerborn at No. 4 singles and then freshman Karem Harboe dominated Summa Edwards 6-2, 6-2 on court five, to give Ole Miss a 3-1 lead. Mira Radu won her third match in a row, easily defeating Carolina Ramirez 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 3 spot, to clinch the win for the Lady Rebels. Radu has won her last three matches in straight sets. With the match won, Sabrina Peppl defeated Martina Janska 6-4, 6-2 at No. 6 singles to make it 5-1. Auburn only claimed one set in singles all day, as Lady Rebel freshman Hanna-Katri Aalto topped Katia Illarionova 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 at No. 2 singles for the final 6-1 score.
LADY REBELS WIN SIXTH STRAIGHT OVER AUBURN
The Lady Rebels have now won six in a row over Auburn and 11 of the last 12 matches between the two teams. The Lady Rebels improved their series record against the Tigers to 18-8. Under head coach Jerry Montgomery, the Lady Rebels are 12-3 versus Auburn.
SCOUTING ALABAMA
Alabama comes into the tournament as the No. 8 seed with a 13-8 overall record. They finished 4-7 in the SEC regular season. The Crimson Tide are coming off a 4-3 win over Arkansas at home. They are led by 43rd-ranked Emmanuelle Berard. Berard and Dominque Glinzler are ranked No. 31 in doubles.
THE LAST TIME AGAINST ALABAMA
Alabama won the opening doubles point and that would prove to be the difference as they defeated Ole Miss 4-3 on March 27 in Oxford. Ole Miss won at No. 2 doubles, and then Alabama claimed the No. 1 spot. Karem Harboe and Camilla Gould were up 7-6 and serving, but Alabama's Weyli Chang and Selia Mathew would rally for a 9-7 win at No. 3 doubles to clinch the point. Playing without their No. 2 player, the Lady Rebels made a valiant effort but came up short. Harboe put Ole Miss on the board with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Chang at No. 4 singles. The Crimson Tide took a 2-1 lead when Mathew defeated Mira Radu 6-4, 6-0 at the No. 2 position. Alabama's Dominique Glinzler downed Lady Rebel Audra Adams 6-1, 6-0 to make it 3-1 Alabama. But, Ole Miss would answer as Alesya Ignatieva topped Jenny Ketchum 6-4, 6-2 at No. 3 singles. With Julie DeRoo and Alabama's Emmanuelle Berard in the third set on court one, the Crimson Tide's Becca Baum closed out her match against Lady Rebel freshman Sabrina Peppl 7-5, 6-3 to clinch the victory. DeRoo went on to defeat Berard, rallying for the 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-0 win.
OLE MISS AND ALABAMA
Ole Miss leads the all-time series with Alabama 23-6 and has won 20 of the last 21 matches. The Crimson Tide snapped a 20-match Ole Miss winning streak with a 4-3 win in Oxford this year.
AND THE WINNER GETS
The winner of the Ole Miss/Alabama match will advance to the quarterfinals to face either Florida or Vanderbilt. The two teams are playing a rain-delayed match Wednesday, to decide the No. 1 and 2 seeds. The quarterfinal match will be at 2:00 p.m. on Friday. Ole Miss lost to Florida 6-1 on April 13. In that match, the lone winner was Mira Radu, who downed Lady Gator Stephanie Hazlett 6-3, 6-2 at No. 3 singles. Alabama dropped a 6-1 decision to Florida.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
Ole Miss is ranked No. 29 in the latest WingspanBank.com ITA National Rankings, released Wednesday. Four teams from the SEC are ranked among the nation's top six and nine are among the top 30. Individually, sophomore Julie DeRoo is ranked No. 35 in singles.
WHEW! WHAT A SCHEDULE
The Lady Rebels play a tough schedule every year especially when you factor in the SEC. But this year, they traveled to Albuquerque, N.M. on Jan. 26 to face nationally-ranked New Mexico as well as Kansas State (Jan. 27) and then went on to Provo, Utah for a match with nationally-ranked BYU on Jan. 29. The schedule also includes No. 13 South Alabama and No. 5 Texas. Of the Lady Rebels' 18 opponents, 17 have been nationally-ranked including eight that are currently ranked in the top 25.
IGNATIEVA NEARS 70
Junior Alesya Ignatieva is nearing her 70th career victory. She needs threemore wins to reach the 70-win plateau. Sophomore Mira Radu needs one win to record her 50th career victory. Julie DeRoo's next victory will give her 40 for her career.
HOME SWEET HOME
Ole Miss is a tough assignment for opponents in Oxford. The Lady Rebels have posted a 43-15 record over the last five years at home. The Lady Rebels finished 5-5 at home this year, with three of their losses against top 25 teams.
ON THE COURT
Of the Lady Rebels' 18 opponents, 17 have been nationally-ranked including seven in the top 25...The Lady Rebels are 7-1 when they win the doubles point and 2-10 when they lose the point...Mira Radu has won three in a row and all have been in straight sets.
USHERING IN OF A NEW GUARD
This year marked the ushering in of a new guard as the core of the 1999 SEC Championship team graduated last year and passed on the torch to a talented, committed group of young players. With no seniors on this year's team, four returning players, and five freshmen, the Lady Rebel lineup was no doubt a lot different from last year, and it changed quite a bit throughout the season. The Lady Rebels have used 16 different doubles combinations in dual matches this spring. Sophomore Mira Radu, one of the four returning players, played everywhere from No. 2 to No. 5 in the lineup. Junior Alesya Ignatieva played three different positions.
NEW ASSISTANT COACH ROAMING THE COURTS
In addition to several new players on this year's team, the Lady Rebels also welcomed a new assistant coach. Whitt Taber joined the Ole Miss women's tennis program this year, and he is already making his presence felt with a young team. Taber came to Ole Miss after spending last year as the assistant men's and women's tennis coach at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
IT'S ALL ACADEMIC
Three members of the 29th-ranked Ole Miss women's tennis team were among 56 student-athletes named to the 2001 SEC Academic Honor Roll released Wednesday by the conference office. Julie DeRoo, Camilla Gould and Mira Radu made the SEC Academic Honor Roll. The award is based on grades from the 1999-2000 academic calendar year, and freshman are not eligible. Gould is making her second appearance on the honor roll. The junior from Montgomery, Ala., is majoring in Accounting. She has been a member of the Chancellor's Honor Roll every semester. Gould, who has played in several dual matches this spring in doubles, was a member of the 1999 SEC Tournament Champion team. DeRoo and Radu made the honor roll for the first time they are eligible. DeRoo, a sophomore from Ecully, France, is currently ranked No. 35 in the nation singles with a 10-7 record at No. 1 singles. A Management major, DeRoo has been a member of the UMAA Honor Roll and she made the Chancellor's Honor Roll last semester. A native of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Radu is a sophomore Marketing major. She has been a member of the Dean's and UMAA Honor Rolls. Radu has won three in a row in singles all in straight sets.
LADY REBELS HONORED AT BANQUET
Hanna-Katri Aalto, Audra Adams, Florencia Basile, Julie DeRoo, Camilla Gould, Karem Harboe and Mira Radu were honored at the "National Student-Athlete Day" banquet April 5. Student-athletes who made one of the three University academic honor rolls or the SEC Academic Honor Roll were eligible to receive the honor.
