The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Arkansas<br>SEC Tournament
Women's Tennis Advances To SEC Tourney Semis
4/23/2010 | Women's Tennis
ATHENS, Ga. -- The No. 2 seeded Ole Miss women's tennis team avenged a regular season loss to seventh-seeded Arkansas, winning 4-2 to advance to the SEC Tournament semifinals Friday.
This marks the second year in a row, for the Rebels (15-4) to advance to the semifinals with a win over Arkansas (17-9) in the quarterfinals. They will face third-seeded Tennessee, a 4-2 winner against Vanderbilt, Saturday at 1 p.m. CT.
"Today was a great college tennis match between us and Arkansas," head coach Mark Beyers said. "There is no real difference between our teams, but we came out today and fought hard to come away with the win."
The Rebels got on the board first by taking the doubles point. Abby Guthrie and Laura van de Stroet won 8-1 at No. 3 for their sixth in a row. Arkansas took the No. 2 match 8-3. The 13th-ranked duo of Kristi Boxx and Karen Nijssen clinched the point with an 8-4 win over Kate Lukomskaya and Kelsey Sundaram at No. 1.
Arkansas gained early momentum in singles, winning five of the first sets. Van de Stroet had her five-match win streak at No. 5 singles snapped by Sundaram, 6-1, 6-2.
With the score tied at 1, Nijssen finished off Lukomskaya 6-1, 6-4 at No. 2 singles to give Ole Miss a 2-1 lead.
Arkansas evened the match when Valentina Starkova won a second set tiebreaker at No. 6 singles to finish off Rebel sophomore Gabby Rangel, 6-4, 7-6(3).
Ole Miss was able to split sets in the other three matches where they lost the first set. Abby Guthrie rallied to defeat Stephanie Roy at No. 4 singles to put the Rebels ahead, 3-2. After dropping the first set 6-2, Guthrie dominated the second 6-2. In the third set, Guthrie broke at 6-5 to avenge the regular season loss to Roy.
Junior Connor Vogel has stepped up plenty of times this season as evidenced by her 9-1 SEC record, and she did it again Friday. She came from behind to beat Razorback Emily Carbone at No. 3 singles to clinch the victory. Their first meeting of the year went three sets as well, with Carbone coming out on top. Vogel had a 5-1 lead in the first set, but Carbone erased that to win 7-5. Vogel bounced back to claim the second 6-2 and then gained an early break to go up 3-1 in the third. The two would trade breaks for the next four games. With Vogel leading 5-3, she was able to finally hold her serve for 6-3 to give the Rebels their sixth straight win.
"We'd lost to Arkansas earlier in the season, and I even lost to Emily Carbone. I fell in the first set, but I wanted to get the match back for a win," Vogel said. "It was really encouraging to see my teammates fighting alongside me."
The Rebels defeated Tennessee 5-2 during the regular season meeting in Oxford.
#2 Ole Miss 4
#7 Arkansas 2
DOUBLES
1. Boxx/Nijssen (OM) def. Lukomskaya/Sundaram (UA) 8-4
2. Tigu/Starkova (UA) def. Vogel/Rangel (OM) 8-3
3. Guthrie/van de Stroet (OM) def. Roy/Paulson (UA) 8-1
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1
SINGLES
1. Kristi Boxx (OM) vs. Anouk Tigu (UA) 2-6, 7-5, 5-4, sus.
2. Karen Nijssen (OM) def. Kate Lukomskaya (UA) 6-1, 6-4
3. Connor Vogel (OM) def. Emily Carbone (UA) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3
4. Abby Guthrie (OM) def. Stephanie Roy (UA) 2-6, 6-2, 7-5
5. Kelsey Sundaram (UA) def. Laura van de Stroet (OM) 6-1, 6-2
6. Valentina Starkova (UA) def. Gabby Rangel (OM) 6-4, 7-6(3)
Order of Finish: 5, 2, 6, 4, 3
