The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Texas A&M
Another Tough Match Slips by Rebels
3/13/2016 | Women's Tennis
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - For the second straight match, the Rebels were on the cusp of winning against a top 20 team, but No. 16 Texas A&M rallied to steal the match 4-3 Sunday at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
The match came down to No. 4 singles, and the Rebels had a match point in the second set with freshman Tea Jandric up a set and 5-2 against A&M's Domenica Gonzalez. Gonzalez rallied from 5-2 down and match point at 5-3, to force a tiebreaker, which she won 7-5 to get to a third set. Jandric went down an early break and couldn't recover, as Gonzalez won it 6-2 to clinch 4-3 for the Aggies.
The Rebels took the early 1-0 lead with doubles wins on courts two and one. Tea Jandric and Natalie Suk won 6-1 and then Arianne Hartono and Mai El Kamash won 6-3 to close out the point.
A&M tied the match when Rachel Pierson beat 62nd-ranked El Kamash 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 singles. The Aggies took a 2-1 lead after 49th-ranked Hartono fell to 40th-ranked Saska Gavrilovska 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1 singles.
Suk tied it up when she finished off Rutuja Bhosale 6-1, 6-4 at No. 2 singles, and then Zalina Khairudinova gave the Rebels a 3-2 lead with a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 5 against Eva Paalma.
Freshman Allie Sanford played her first dual match in singles and won the first set against Ines Deheza 6-4, but Deheza came back to take the match 6-2, 6-0 in the final two sets to set up her teammate.
Notables…
• The Rebels are now 8-3 overall and 1-3 in the SEC. They return home to host Florida and South Carolina next weekend.
• Natalie Suk improved to 6-3 in dual matches, 5-3 at No. 2 singles.
• Arianne Hartono and Mai El Kamash improved to 10-5 overall, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles.
• The Rebels are now a combined 19-7 at the top three spots in the lineup.
Quoting Head Coach Mark Beyers…
"This is about as tough as it gets, to get this close twice and come away 0-2 on the weekend. We have to do a better job of closing out matches as well as doing a better job of turning matches around after losing the first set."
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
