The University of Mississippi Athletics
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2/16/2012 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 16, 2012
OXFORD, Miss. - The No. 24 nationally ranked Ole Miss women's tennis team has been to Hawaii, Tallahassee, Fla., Lubbock, Texas and Charlottesville, Va., in the first month of the season. Now, the Rebels are back in Oxford for a three-match home stand with their home opener Saturday against SMU.
Play begins at Noon with doubles followed by singles at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center. In the event of inclement weather, the match will be played indoors at the Gillom Sports Center.
After beginning the season 4-0 highlighted by wins against No. 29 Texas A&M and No. 18 Florida State to reach the ITA National Team Indoor Final 16, the Rebels are looking to snap a four-match losing streak.
"Once we lost those matches to Duke, Clemson, and Miami people were disappointed because we felt like we should've won at least one of those if not more," head coach Mark Beyers said. "Obviously we had Duke on the ropes and it came down to the last set. After we got over that initial disappointment I think the players understood that this is going to give us so much valuable experience. We've seen the best teams in the country now, and we've been able to play with them and really go toe to toe with them."
The Rebels are led by senior All-American Kristi Boxx, who is ranked No. 20 in the latest singles rankings with a 14-6 overall record. She also teams with fellow senior Abby Guthrie for a No. 5 doubles ranking and a 15-5 record.
Sophomore Caroline Rohde-Moe has also been steady for the Rebels this year with a 16-4 overall record and 6-1 at No. 2. She is ranked No. 74 in singles.
The Rebels are looking to bounce back after three tough matches last weekend at the ITA National Team Indoor to No. 3 Duke, No. 15 Clemson and No. 11 Miami.
"Even though we lost those three matches at the National Indoors, the teams that we played against were ranked top 15 in the country. I think it showed us that what we are ranked might be a pretty accurate number of where we are right now. At the same time, I think the players also saw that we are very close to being a top 15 team. We had some opportunities against Duke, we had some opportunities against Miami, and we didn't come up with a win, but the girls saw that the difference between 23 and 11 is very small," Beyers said.
Admission to all home matches is free. For anyone who can't make it to the match, follow along with a live blog and live scoring.
Follow the Rebels on twitter at @OleMissWTennis and on facebook at www.facebook.com/OleMissWTennis.
