The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
South Alabama
Lady Rebel Netters Down No. 29 South Alabama 6-1
2/26/2006 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 26, 2006
OXFORD, Miss. - The No. 35 nationally ranked Ole Miss women's tennis team is sure to move up in this week's national rankings after defeating 29th-ranked South Alabama 6-1 Sunday afternoon at the Gillom Sports Center. The match had to be played indoors due to cold temperatures.
With the win, the Lady Rebels improved to 6-0 and are off to their best start since they began the 2002 season 6-0. Ole Miss increased their lead in the series to 11-6 as South Alabama dropped to 5-2 on the season.
"We are proud of the girls for beating a higher ranked team and doing so pretty decisively," head coach Mark Beyers said. "We set a goal at the beginning of the season to go into conference play undefeated, and we accomplished that."
Ole Miss won the doubles point to go up 1-0, but they had to battle back to do so. The Lady Rebel duo of Nika Koukhartchouk and Kseniia Tokarieva dominated their opponent 8-1 at No. 2 doubles, but Ole Miss trailed in the remaining matches. At No. 3 doubles, Mimi Renaudin and Preethi Subramanian were down 5-1 to South Alabama's Dijanic Stanic and Jelena Krivacevics before winning six straight games to take a 7-5 lead. They got broke, but broke back to win the match 8-6 and clinch the point. At No. 1 doubles, OM's Virginia Tomatis and Ilona Somers came back from a 5-2 deficit to win 9-8(3).
Tokarieva continues to dominate her opponents, taking out USA's Michaela Babicova, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 3 singles to make it 2-0 Ole Miss. She heads into SEC play at 14-3 overall and 6-0 in dual matches. She has yet to drop a set in any of her wins and has won six in a row and eight of her last nine.
Tomatis gave the Lady Rebels a 3-0 lead when she downed Jelena Krivacevics at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-1.
South Alabama got on the board when Adrianna Solarova handed Koukhartchouk a 7-6(3), 6-1 loss at No. 2 singles.
Junior Ilona Somers finished off Maria Zivcicova in straight sets (6-3, 6-2) at No. 4 singles to clinch the win for the Lady Rebels. She has won five in a row and six of her last seven.
In the last two matches, Ole Miss struggled, but found a way to win both for the final 6-1 score. Renaudin's opponent came in undefeated in dual matches and with a nine match winning streak. After splitting sets, Renaudin won a supertiebreaker in the third set to snap the streak.
Ole Miss will welcome No. 2 and unbeaten Florida to the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center Friday to open SEC play. The match will begin at 3 p.m.
DOUBLES
#1 Tomatis/Somers (OM) def. Spanenberg/Zivcicova (USA) 9-8(3)
#2 Koukhartchouk/Tokarieva (OM) def. Solarova/Klara Jarova (USA) 8-1
#3 Subramanian/Renaudin (OM) def. Stanic/Krivacevics (USA) 8-6
SINGLES
#1 Virginia Tomatis (OM) def. Jelena Krivacevics (USA) 6-3, 6-1
#2 Adrianna Solarova (USA) def. Nika Koukhartchouk (OM) 7-6(3), 6-1
#3 Kseniia Tokarieva (OM) def. Michaela Babicova (USA) 6-1, 6-2
#4 Ilona Somers (OM) def. Maria Zivcicova (USA) 6-3, 6-2
#5 Mimi Renaudin (OM) def. Dijanic Stanic (USA) 6-7(2), 6-4, 10-6
#6 Preethi Subramanian (OM) def. Sylvanie Spanenberg (USA) 6-4, 7-5
