The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Arkansas
No. 17 Rebels Sweep Arkansas
3/6/2015 | Women's Tennis
OXFORD, Miss. - Coming off two tough losses to kick off SEC play, the No. 17 ranked Ole Miss women's tennis bounced back, sweeping Arkansas 7-0 here Friday night at the Gillom Sports Center.
With the win, the Rebels improved to 9-3 overall and 1-2 in the SEC as they welcome Missouri Sunday at 1 p.m. Arkansas fell to 11-5 and 1-1 in league play.
The Rebels won the doubles point with a tiebreaker at No. 1, and then picked up a straight set win from freshman Arianne Hartono at No. 2 singles and two huge three-setters from senior Julia Jones at No. 1 and junior Mai El Kamash at No. 3 to clinch their first SEC win of the season.
"It was very close for a long time, but the difference was getting the tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles and the three-setters from Julia and Mai," head coach Mark Beyers said. "If we don't get those, then we have another 4-3 match. Arkansas is a really good team, and today we were able to win some of the close matches. Being able to win those close sets and close matches is a positive, because that is what we are going to have to do the entire year."
After Hartono and El Kamash won 8-3 at No. 3 doubles, all eyes turned to courts one and two, where both were locked in tiebreakers to decide the point. Arkansas won the breaker at No. 2, 8-7(3), but the senior duo of Erin Stephens and Iris Verboven won their tiebreaker 8-7(2) at No. 1, to give the Rebels a 1-0 lead.
Hartono, ranked No. 43, was first off the court in singles, downing Shannon Hudson 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 to make it 2-0. She improved to 15-7 overall and 6-3 at No. 2 singles.
Both Jones and El Kamash lost their first sets and both came back to win. Jones, ranked No. 14 in the nation, lost her first set against Yuliya Lysa 7-5 and then won a tight second set 6-4 before gaining control in the third for 6-3 to make it 3-0 Ole Miss. Jones improved to 20-5 overall and 10-2 at No. 1 singles. She also earned her 93rd career win.
With the Rebels needing only one more point, El Kamash made sure none of the other matches would be necessary, as she finished off a comeback against Arkansas' Makenzie Craft. After dropping the first set 6-4 and trailing 4-3 in the second, Mai won three straight games to win it 6-4 and force a third set. Down an early break 3-2, Mai won four straight games for 6-3 to clinch the Rebel victory.
"I was just trying to hang in there, because she was hitting lot of winners," El Kamash said. "I kept trying to make it tougher for her, make her play more points. I tried to stay positive and listen to coach. It definitely gives me a lot of confidence to know that I can pull out a win like that against a good player, when I am not playing my best tennis. Arkansas is a good team. I thought we played well as a whole. It's tough to get every court even after you win 4-0, but we did. Everyone did a great job."
"Both Mai and Julia were able to beat a good player when it wasn't their best day," Beyers said. "They were able to come back and dig into the match when they weren't playing their best and turn it around. Everybody can win when they are playing great, but when you can win matches when you are not playing that great, that's when you learn how to handle adversity. You learn that you don't always need your best stuff to beat good players."
Freshman Natalie Suk won her match 5-7, 6-1, 10-6 at No. 4, and Stephens finished off her match with 11 straight games for 7-5, 6-0 at No. 5. Verboven completed the sweep, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 6.
The Rebels will look to even their conference record on Sunday against a Missouri team, they have beaten two straight times.
"It doesn't get any easier, they've got a good team. We'll see whether we are inside or outside. We are going to bring it again and play at this level and hopefully a little better."
For more information on Ole Miss Women's Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter, @OleMissWTennis, on Facebook at OleMissWTennis and on Instagram at OleMissWTennis.
| #17 Ole Miss 7, #44 Arkansas 0 | ||
| Women's Singles Results | ||
| No. 1 | #14 Julia Jones (OM) def. Yuliya Lysa (ARK) | 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 |
| No. 2 | #43 Arianne Hartono (OM) def. Shannon Hudson (ARK) | 6-2, 6-3 |
| No. 3 | #109 Mai El Kamash (OM) def. Makenzie Craft (ARK) | 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 |
| No. 4 | Natalie Suk (OM) def. Oleksandra Shkorupei (ARK) | 5-7, 6-1, 10-6 |
| No. 5 | Erin Stephens (OM) def. Mia Jurasic (ARK) | 7-5, 6-0 |
| No. 6 | Iris Verboven (OM) def. Nicole Breaux (ARK) | 6-1, 6-2 |
| Order of Finish | 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 | |
| Women's Doubles Results | ||
| No. 1 | Stephens/Verboven (OM) def. Hudson/Lysa (ARK) | 8-7(2) |
| No. 2 | Craft/Jurasic (ARK) def. Jones/Suk (OM) | 8-7(3) |
| No. 3 | Hartono/El Kamash (OM) def. Breaux/Shkorupeieva (ARK) | 8-3 |
| Order of Finish | 3, 2, 1 | |
Players Mentioned
