The University of Mississippi Athletics
Men's Tennis Heads To Gainesville For SEC Championship
4/19/2011 | Men's Tennis
April 19, 2011
SEC Championship Bracket in PDF Format | SEC Championship Central
OXFORD, Miss. - The last time the Ole Miss men's tennis team was in Gainesville, Fla., they came away with a 4-3 win over Florida a month ago. The Rebels travel back to the Sunshine State this week for the SEC Championship and a match-up with Vanderbilt Thursday at 5 p.m. CT.
The Rebels (11-8) are coming off a tough end to the regular season with back-to-back losses to Auburn and Mississippi State, two teams they had won a combined 49 in a row against. This is just the second time since 1994 for the Rebels to be playing on the first day of the championship.
Last year marked the first time for Ole Miss to play on the first day in more than a decade, and the Rebels defeated South Carolina 4-1 and then upset host Kentucky 4-0 to advance to the semifinals for the 14th time.
Ole Miss had high expectations heading into the season, with the expected return of senior Kalle Norberg to the lineup. But the 2009 SEC Tournament MVP, who missed all of last season, has missed nine matches this year - including six in the SEC - due to injury.
"If we have a healthy Kalle Norberg then we're not playing until Friday," head coach Billy Chadwick said. "With that being said, there was a lot of close matches that we could have found a way to win, including the Mississippi State, Auburn and LSU matches. I would love to have those back, but we're not getting those back. We're focusing on Vanderbilt."
Vanderbilt comes into the SEC Tournament as the ninth seed at 13-9. The Commodores are coming off a tough 4-3 loss to Kentucky, in which they held a 3-1 lead before the Wildcats rallied.
The Rebels have lost the doubles point in four of their last five matches and four of those have been losses. They are 0-7 when they don't get the doubles point and 10-1 when they win it. Furthermore, the Rebels are 165-11 since 2002 when claiming the opening point and 34-45 when losing the point.
"We've got to a better job of executing in the doubles," Chadwick said. "We're positioning ourselves, and we have to make sure that we stay focused. The doubles point is very important, and it will be extremely important this weekend against Vanderbilt."
During the regular season meeting against the Commodores, the Rebels posted a 4-0 shutout indoors, but Chadwick notes that Vanderbilt is playing much better as of late.
"They're playing their best tennis right now. Their match against Kentucky was very close. Kentucky had to win a tiebreaker in the third and another 7-5 in the third. We are playing a very capable team and one that is playing very well," Chadwick said.
The winner of Thursday's match gets the No.1 seed and second-ranked team in the nation, Tennessee.
"We would love to have the opportunity to play Tennessee again. They have one of the top teams in the nation," Chadwick said. "We're going to have to earn that chance by going through a very tough Vanderbilt team."
Live scoring of Thursday's match will be available by going to www.OleMissSports.com and clicking on the link in the calendar.
