Tennis season in Oxford continues as both the men’s and women’s tennis teams are rolling in the heart of conference play.
Fabian Fallert completes a singles match against Alcorn State on Saturday, Feb, 10. Photo by Christian Johnson
The men’s team is sitting at 12-9 overall with a 3-5 in the SEC. They’re coming off of a two-match split on Sunday, including a 4-2 loss to No. 19 Tennessee and a 4-0 decision against Jackson State.
The Rebels started Sunday out on top, picking up the doubles points as Tim Sandkaulen and Finn Reynolds took care of their match and Fabian Fallert and Cotter Wilson clinched the lead with a 6-3 victory on the third doubles court.
Ole Miss wasn’t as successful in singles play. Sandkaulen was handled 6-4, 6-1 by Tennessee’s Tim Stodder in the first singles match. Reynolds fell in singles play to Karlo Kranic. Freshman Simon Junk gave the Rebels their only other point on court six with a 7-5,6-1 win over Andrew Rodgers, but it was too little too late. Adam Walton defeated Filip Kraljevic 6-4,6-3 to finish off the Rebels at Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center.
The Rebels came back for another match, this time against an inferior Jackson State University team that was 4-17 coming into the weekend.
The duo of Fallert and Reynolds returned to capture the doubles point for the Rebels with a 6-4 victory on court one. The doubles duo is currently No. 14 in the ITA rankings.
Simon Junk kept the momentum going, only conceding one game in his second singles victory of the day. Fallert and Sandkaulen followed with singles wins of their own, both winning 6-1,6-0 to clinch the match victory and Sunday split.
The team heads into the tail end of the season with big wins over No. 26 Oklahoma State and No. 22 Georgia as well a pair of upsets over No. 21 Alabama on its resume. The Rebels sit at No. 33 in the latest ITA rankings.
The men’s team will face Arkansas in Oxford on Thursday at 6 p.m. and will travel to Mississippi State on Friday at 3 p.m.
The women’s team has a 6-7 overall record and a 3-4 mark in the SEC. The Rebels were on a three-game win streak, with victories over Mississippi State, Alabama and No. 39 Auburn, before the weekend, when they dropped matches at No. 2 Georgia on Friday and No. 29 Tennessee on Sunday.
Ole Miss fell 4-0 to the undefeated Georgia Bulldogs on Friday. Alexa Bortles and Sabina Machalova dropped the first doubles match 6-1, but Cameron Kriscunas and Tereza Janatova came back to balance the scales with a 6-3 win, their first of the season. With the doubles point on the line, Tea Jandric and Anna Vrbenska lost 6-3 to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 match lead.
Allie Sanford, Sabina Machalova and Alexa Bortles lost their singles matches to finish the match. Jandric and Janatova preserved their win streaks, as their matches were unfinished when the Bulldogs clinched the victory.
“There is no doubt that Georgia is one of the best teams in the country, and they played a great match,” head coach Mark Beyers said after the match. “I was just disappointed with how one-sided this match was.”
The Rebels traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee, on Sunday and suffered another 4-0 decision. The No. 6-ranked duo of Sadie Hammond and Kaitlin Staines defeated Machalova and Bortles 6-2 and claimed the doubles point for Tennessee.
Jandric, Machalova and Sanford dropped their singles matches. Jandric’s six-match winning streak was snapped by Tennessee’s Kaitlin Staines.
The team has six SEC matchups before the conference tournament in College Station, Texas, which begins on April 17.
They’ll come back to Oxford for matches against Arkansas at 3 p.m. Friday and Missouri at 1 p.m. Sunday.
