The University of Mississippi Athletics
No. 25 Rebels to Host Arkansas-Pine Bluff
1/21/2016 | Women's Tennis
OXFORD, Miss. -- After spending the opening weekend of the season in Miami, the No. 25 ranked Ole Miss women's tennis team returns home to host Arkansas-Pine Bluff in a doubleheader Saturday at the Gillom Sports Center. The first match begins at Noon with the second one to follow.
Miami Invite Rewind...
The Rebels picked up eight wins in singles and doubles against players from No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 13 Miami and Texas this past weekend at the Miami Spring Invite. Senior Mai El Kamash and sophomore Arianne Hartono, ranked No. 47 in the nation, just missed out on posting wins against the Nos. 11 and 22 ranked teams, losing both in a tiebreaker.
Scouting Arkansas-Pine Bluff...
Arkansas-Pine Bluff comes into the weekend 0-3 with losses to Tulsa and twice to Oral Roberts. The Lady Lions are led by Brentney Sargent and Tia Thomas at the top of the lineup.
New Leaders...
With the graduation of three seniors, including All-American Julia Jones, the leadership now falls to this year's senior class, which includes 55th-ranked Mai El Kamash, Marija Milutinovic and Allie Robbins. Also returning from last year's lineup are junior Zalina Khairudinova and sophomores Arianne Hartono (ranked No. 84) and Natalie Suk.
Fab Frosh...
New to the lineup this year are 44th-ranked Tea Jandric and Allie Sanford. Jandric hails from Zagreb, Croatia and was ranked No. 1 in Croatia in juniors. She won the National Championship in singles and doubles in every age group. Jandric owns a 6-6 record in singles and is 8-2 in doubles with two different partners. Sanford comes into this weekend's home opener with an 11-5 singles record 8-5 in doubles. She went 7-3 with Zalina Khairudinova in the fall, including winning the Las Vegas Invitational.
Head Coach Mark Beyers on Starting the Season...
"Obviously we want to start the season 2-0 and give each of the ladies a chance to use some of the things they've been working on in practice in a match. We want to use this weekend to get ready for Stanford and the rest of the matches after that. We are excited to be at home. It's always more fun to play in front of a home crowd and be able to sleep in your own bed."
Next Up...
Following Saturday's match, the Rebels will have about a week before heading to Nashville, Tennessee to take on No. 7 Stanford.
For more information on Ole Miss Women's Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter @OleMissWTennis, on Facebook at OleMissWTennis and on Instagram at OleMissWTennis. Also follow Coach Beyers on Twitter, @MarkBeyers.
Players Mentioned
