The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Kentucky
Women's Tennis Loses Heartbreaker To No. 21 Kentucky
2/29/2004 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 29, 2004
OXFORD, Miss. - In a match that lasted five hours, the Ole Miss women's tennis team lost a heartbreaker to No. 21 Kentucky, 4-3, Sunday afternoon at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center. With the loss, the Lady Rebels dropped to 6-4 overall and 0-2 in the SEC, while Kentucky improved to 10-5 and 2-0 in league play.
Ole Miss won an exciting doubles point to take a 1-0 early lead. The Lady Reb duo of Karem Harboe and Florencia Basile downed Christine Simpson and Liis Sober, 8-2, at the No. 3 position. Kentucky won at No. 2 doubles, 8-4, leaving court one to decide the point. Ole Miss' Chloe Carlotti and Virginia Tomatis held a 5-1 lead against UK's Sarah Foster and Joelle Schwenk, but the Wildcat duo would come back. The match went to a tiebreaker, which Carlotti and Tomatis won 7-5 to clinch the point.
Kentucky turned up the heat in singles, winning the first set on four of the six courts. Lady Rebel Basile made it 2-0 Ole Miss when she downed Sober 6-3, 6-0 at No. 5 singles to move to 9-1 on the season. She has won nine of her last 10 matches.
The Wildcats then finished off matches at Nos. 3, 6 and 4 to take a 3-2 lead. UK's Schwenk defeated Lady Rebel Sabrina Peppl, 6-1, 6-2; on court three. On court six, UK's Simpson beat Audra Adams, 6-3, 6-3. Foster held off Tomatis, 6-4, 6-4; at No. 4 to give her team the lead with the top two courts heading into the third sets.
At No. 1 singles, 96th-ranked Carlotti was battling 19th-ranked Aibika Kalsarieva. Carlotti lost the first set 6-4, but battled to win a second-set tiebreaker, 7-6(3) to force the deciding set. Over on court two, Harboe won her first set 7-6, but her opponent, Lara Maurer, took the second, 6-2. Harboe got down 0-2 in the final set, before rallying to win six of the next seven games for a 6-3 score to win and even the overall match 3-3.
With the match all square, everyone turned their attention to the final set of court one. Carlotti got down a break early and had chances to break back twice, but Kalsarieva held on and then broke at 5-3 to clinch the match for Kentucky.
"We are obviously disappointed to come up short in such a close match," head coach Mark Beyers said. "We battled and fought hard, so it's tough to take. We are very close to being where these teams (Kentucky/Vanderbilt) are. We saw a lot of good things, we just have to find a way to get over the hump. We need to turn it around and come out this week in practice with the determination to get better.
This marks the third year in a row for the match to go down to the wire and end up 4-3. Ole Miss has now lost four in a row to Kentucky.
The Lady Rebels will look to end a four-match losing streak when they travel to face SEC Western Division rivals Alabama and Auburn next weekend.
#21 Kentucky 4
#30 Ole Miss 3
DOUBLES
#1 Carlotti-Tomatis (OM) def. Foster-Schwenk (UK) 9-8(5)
#2 Kalsarieva-Maurer (UK) def. Adams-Peppl (OM) 8-4
#3 Basile-Harboe (OM) def. Simpson-Sober (UK) 8-2
SINGLES
#1 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) def. Chloe Carlotti (OM) 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3
#2 Karem Harboe (OM) def. Lara Maurer (UK) 7-6, 2-6, 6-3
#3 Joelle Schwenk (UK) def. Sabrina Peppl (OM) 6-1, 6-2
#4 Sarah Foster (UK) def. Virginia Tomatis (OM) 6-4, 6-4
#5 Florencia Basile (OM) def. Liis Sober (UK) 6-3, 6-0
#6 Christine Simpson (UK) def. Audra Adams (OM) 6-3, 6-3
