Rebel Netters To Begin Quest For SEC Crown

OXFORD, Miss. The Ole Miss men’s tennis team has been to the final of the SEC Championships two of the last three years and both times faced Georgia.  The Rebels are hoping to get there again, but first up they must defeat Auburn in the quarterfinal round Friday at 11 a.m.

Auburn, the No. 7 seed, downed 10th-seeded Kentucky 4-0 Thursday, in the first round to advance.  

“The SEC Championships is the toughest team championship next to the NCAA Championships,” head coach Billy Chadwick said.  “Auburn is very tough. Then if we win that one, we play the winner of Florida and Alabama. Of course, Alabama beat us in the regular season, and Florida is a team that we always have to battle against. We’d like another crack at Georgia, but we aren’t looking past the first one.”

The Rebels captured their sixth straight SEC West title and finished runner-up in the overall standings.  The team is ready to build on the success of the regular season and try to win a championship.

“We’ve played all the teams and we know all the players who will be there,” said junior Jakob Klaeson. “We won the SEC West and finished second overall. Now we can really do something in the tournament and top off our season even more. It’s so exciting to play in these tournaments.”

The Rebels are led by junior Erling Tveit, who earned All-SEC honors for the third time in his career and is ranked No. 13 in the nation. 

Another member of the All-SEC first team, junior Robbye Poole has been a rock for the Rebels this year.  He is currently ranked No. 35 and finished 8-2 in the SEC.

“We’ve put the regular season behind us,” Poole said. “We think we can beat any team we face. But we saw against Alabama that if we’re not at the top of our game, we can lose. It was a wakeup call. But we’re here to win this thing.”

Berg, who earned All-SEC second team honors, is currently 17-0 overall and became the third Rebel to go undefeated in the SEC at 11-0.   He won big matches in the Rebels’ wins over LSU and Tennessee, and clinched the team’s 19th straight against Mississippi State.

“It will be fun,” said Berg, who is playing in his first SEC Tournament. “We’re the second seed, and we want to do as well as we possibly can.”

Freshman Kalle Norberg, who also picked up second team honors, owns an 18-1 dual match record, and posted an 8-1 SEC record.  He clinched the wins over LSU and Tennessee for the Rebels to claim the SEC West and finish runner-up in the conference.  

To follow the Rebels throughout the tournament, go to www.olemisssports.com and click on the SEC Championship link in the upcoming events box.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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