The University of Mississippi Athletics
Women's Tennis Continues Quest For SEC West Title
3/30/2005 | Women's Tennis
March 30, 2005
OXFORD, Miss. - The 45th-ranked Ole Miss women's tennis team continues its quest for an SEC Western Division title this weekend with matches at LSU and Arkansas. The Lady Rebels and Lady Tigers will square off Friday at 4 p.m. at the Dub Robinson Tennis Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
Ole Miss (9-6, 2-4) lost two close matches last weekend and stands in second place in the SEC West behind Mississippi State. The Lady Rebels lost a tough 4-3 match to No. 23 Tennessee last Friday and then fell 4-2 to No. 4 Georgia on Sunday. Four of the Lady Rebels' six losses have been by one point and three have come against top 25 teams.
"This is a big weekend for us," head coach Mark Beyers said. "One of our goals at the beginning of the season was to win the SEC West, and this weekend's matches are key in achieving that goal. Hopefully we can play well and come away with two wins."
The Lady Rebels are in a position to win the SEC West due to the play of three freshmen, who up to this point have fared well in the SEC. Nika Koukhartchouk, Mimi Renaudin and Preethi Subramanian are a combined 13-4 in the SEC. Koukhartchouk is 5-1 in the SEC in the top half of the lineup, while Subramanian is undefeated (6-0) in the SEC.
LSU comes into the weekend at 7-7 overall and 1-5 in the SEC. The Lady Tigers are coming off two losses last weekend in conference play, falling to Kentucky, 7-0 and Vanderbilt, 4-3. LSU defeated South Carolina 4-3 for its lone conference win. The Lady Tigers are led by senior Amanda Mang, who is ranked No. 99 with a 5-9 record at No. 1 singles. The team has played its last four matches without the services of injured junior Lauren Seaman, who was a mainstay at the No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles position.
Ole Miss owns an 18-11 lead in the all-time series, 12-4 since 1990. From 1992-2002, the Lady Rebels won every match. In 2003, LSU defeated the Lady Rebels 4-3 in Baton Rouge to snap a 10-match losing skid. Later that year, the Lady Rebels defeated the Lady Tigers 4-3 in the first round of the SEC Tournament. LSU claimed a 4-3 win in Oxford last year.
On Sunday, the Lady Rebels will head to Fayetteville, Ark., for a 1 p.m. match against Arkansas.
Arkansas enters the weekend with a 10-6 overall record, 0-6 in the SEC. They are coming off a 6-1 loss to Vanderbilt and Kentucky last weekend. The Lady Razorbacks are led by Vlatka Jovanovic, who collected the biggest win of her Lady'Back career thus far with a 6-2, 6-2 win against eighth-ranked Audra Faulk of Vanderbilt last weekend. Jovanovic is 10-4 overall, but just 1-7 in the SEC. Karina Ledaja is the only Arkansas player with a winning record in the SEC at 3-2.
Ole Miss improved its record in the series to 16-5 and 14-2 since 1990, with last year's 6-1 win in Oxford. The Lady Rebels have won three straight against Arkansas. The last time the two teams faced off in Fayetteville (2003), Ole Miss won 6-1.
