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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Kentucky - SEC Championship
Rebels Fall Short to Kentucky in SEC Tournament
4/20/2017 | Women's Tennis
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - With 11 teams in the Top 25, the Southeastern Conference Championship is loaded, and Thursday night Ole Miss and Kentucky battled for more than three and a half hours indoors at the Currey Tennis Center, before the Wildcats edged the Rebels 4-3.
With Vanderbilt only having five indoor courts, the match came down to court six with freshman Alexa Bortles battling Kentucky senior Morgan Chumney to decide the winner. The first set was tied 4-4, but Chumney won the final two games and then broke early in the second for a 2-0 lead. She held on two win the second set for 6-4, 6-2, to send Kentucky on to the quarterfinals.
The Rebels jumped on the Wildcats in doubles to take the early 1-0 lead. Anna Vrbenska and Tea Jandric won 6-2 at No. 3 and then 47th-ranked Arianne Hartono and Alexa Bortles dominated the No. 2 ranked team of Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi 6-1 at No. 1 singles to clinch the point.
Kentucky came out firing in singles, winning all five first sets to seize momentum from the Rebels. The Wildcats tied the match when Justina Mikulskyte defeated Jandric 6-3, 6-4 at No. 5 singles and then went up 2-1 with a win on court two.
Kentucky's Emily Fanning won a huge second set tiebreaker on court four to close out Vrbenska 6-4, 7-6(7) and increase their lead to 3-1.
The Rebels battled back on courts one and three to get to third sets and ended up winning both matches to square the overall match at 3-3. Hartono rallied to beat No. 20 ranked Sutjiadi 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 at No. 1 singles and then senior Zalina Khairudinova finished off a comeback against Adachi at No. 3 singles, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
At the net…
• The Rebels are now 14-13 on the year
• Arianne Hartono earned her 9th ranked win of the year and avenged a loss to Adila Sutjiadi from earlier in the season
• Hartono and Alexa Bortles earned their fourth ranked win of the season and second straight top 15 win
• Zalina Khairudinova improved to 16-13 overall in singles and avenged an earlier loss to Mami Adachi in the regular season
Complete results
Doubles
1. #47 Bortles/Hartono (OM) def. #2 Adachi/Sutjiadi (UK) 6-1
2. Suk/Khairudinova (OM) vs. Chumney/Parazinskaite (UK) 5-3, sus.
3. Vrbenska/Jandric (OM) def. Mikulskyte/Fanning (UK) 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 1
Singles
1. #33 Arianne Hartono (OM) def. #20 Adila Sutjiadi (UK)
2. Akvile Parazinskaite (UK) def. #78 Natalie Suk (OM) 6-3, 7-5
3. Zalina Khairudinova (OM) def. Mami Adachi (UK) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
4. Emily Fanning (UK) def. Anna Vrbenska (OM) 6-4, 7-6(7)
5. Justina Mikulskyte (UK) def. Tea Jandric (OM) 6-3, 6-4
6. Morgan Chumney (UK) def. Alexa Bortles (OM) 6-4, 6-2
Order of Finish: 5, 2, 4, 1, 3, 6
Up next…
The Rebels will now wait for the NCAA Championship selections to be announced on May 2 at 4:30 p.m. CT.
For more information on Ole Miss Women's Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissWTennis, on Facebook at OleMissWTennis and on Instagram at OleMissWTennis. Also follow Coach Beyers on Twitter, @MarkBeyers.
Players Mentioned
