The University of Mississippi Athletics
Women's Tennis Atlanta Bound For NCAA 1st Round
5/4/2010 | Women's Tennis
OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss women's tennis team learned its destination for the NCAA Championships Tuesday and found out they are headed back to Atlanta to face UC Irvine in the first round.
The Rebels, ranked No. 17 in the nation, are the No. 2 seed in the regional and will the face the No. 3 seed, UC Irvine, Friday, May 14 at 9 a.m. CT. Georgia Tech is the No. 1 seed and faces the No. 4 seed, Austin Peay, in the first round. The winners will meet Saturday, May 15 at 12 p.m. CT for the right to advance to the NCAA Finals in Athens, Ga., May 20-25.
This marks the 13th NCAA appearance for Ole Miss and the second year in a row for them to be in Atlanta.
"We're familiar with Atlanta and Georgia Tech," head coach Mark Beyers said. "UC Irvine is another team that has to come from the West Coast to the East Coast, and it's never easy to travel that far. They did win the Big West this past weekend, so they'll be a tough match. Without trying to look ahead, being in Georgia Tech's regional is not the worst thing in the world."
Ole Miss finished the regular season at 15-5 overall. The Rebels won their first ever outright SEC Western Division Championship and finished second overall in the conference with their best league record (8-3) since 2000.
The Rebels were led this year by a quartet of All-SEC players. Sophomore Kristi Boxx, of Grenada, Miss., is ranked No. 44 in the nation in singles and No. 12 in doubles with Karen Nijssen. Junior Connor Vogel, of Germantown, Tenn., joined Boxx on the All-SEC first team and leads Ole Miss with a 30-7 overall record. Fellow junior Laura van de Stroet made the second team, along with Nijssen, after going 9-2 in singles and 10-1 in doubles in the SEC.
Atlanta Regional Schedule
Friday, May 14
Match 1: Ole Miss (15-5) vs. UC-Irvine (13-10), 9 a.m.
Match 2: No. 14 Georgia Tech (18-9) vs. Austin Peay (18-3), 12 p.m.
Saturday, May 15
Match 3: Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2, 12 p.m.
(All times Central)
