The University of Mississippi Athletics
Lady Rebel Netters To Battle SEC West Foes
3/8/2006 | Women's Tennis
March 8, 2006
OXFORD, Miss. - The 33rd-ranked Ole Miss women's tennis team will hit the road this weekend for a pair of matches against SEC Western Division foes, Alabama and Auburn. On Friday, the Lady Rebels will visit the Crimson Tide for a 4 p.m. match, and then head to Auburn Sunday to face the Tigers at 1 p.m.
"This is a very important weekend for us in our quest to defend the SEC West," head coach Mark Beyers said. "Alabama just beat Kentucky, so we know it will be a tough match. They have two very solid players at the top of their lineup. We were very close to splitting this past weekend. We've been talking about taking care of opportunities when they arise. If we do that, we can even our record in the SEC."
The Lady Rebels dropped both their matches last weekend to begin conference play. On Friday, Ole Miss suffered a 6-1 loss to No. 4 Florida. The Lady Rebels played the Gators tough, but Florida proved too much in the end. On Sunday, Ole Miss hosted No. 24 South Carolina and just missed coming away victorious. The doubles point was close, but the Gamecocks ultimately prevailed to take the early 1-0 lead. The two teams split the singles matches.
Freshman Kseniia Tokarieva went 3-1 in singles and doubles last weekend to improve to 15-1 in dual matches. She has won eight in a row. Junior Ilona Somers leads the top of the lineup with a 5-1 record.
Alabama comes into the weekend with a 3-5 overall record, 1-1 in the SEC. They split their opening weekend, falling to Vanderbilt, 6-1 and knocking off Kentucky, 4-3. The Crimson Tide faced match point at No. 1 singles, but All-American Robin Stephenson stormed back to clinch the win for the Tide. Stephenson leads the team with a 15-6 overall record, 6-2 at No.1 singles. She is seven shy of the all-time mark for wins at Alabama, with 83.
Ole Miss holds a 27-9 lead in the series. The Lady Rebels won both meetings last year, a 5-2 win in the regular season in Oxford and then a 4-2 win in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Tuscaloosa.
Auburn enters the weekend at 4-5 overall and 0-2 in the SEC. They opened up conference play last weekend with consecutive 7-0 losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
Tim Gray is in his first season at the helm of the Tigers. Gray comes to Auburn after spending the past three years as the head coach at Eastern Michigan, where he accrued a record of 41-20.
The Lady Rebels own a 22-9 advantage in the series against Auburn. Ole Miss has won nine of the last 10 meetings. Auburn's lone win in that time period came in 2002, a 4-3 win in Auburn. In fact, since 1990, the Tigers have only won twice in the series, with the other win coming in 1995.
The defending SEC West Champions have dominated divisional foes since 1990, with a 74-8 record.
