On Thursday, March 31, the Ole Miss Women’s tennis team took on No. 23-ranked University of Kentucky Wildcats, where the Rebels garnered a 4-3 victory.
Due to rainy conditions, the match was forced indoors. The match started off rough for the Rebels, who dropped to doubles point. Heading into the singles matches down 0-1, the Rebels surged back, winning the top three singles matches.
Arianne Hartono continued to look very impressive on the court as she improved her overall record to 18-8 and 5-2 in SEC play.
The Wildcats then went on to win the next two singles matches, evening up the score 3-3. The match ended up coming down to the wire with Ole Miss’ Marija Milutinovic and Kentucky’s Kristen Lewis duking it out.
Milutinovic surged ahead to a 5-2 lead, but Lewis fought back to win the first set 7-5. Somehow, after losing an absolute heartbreaker of a set, Milutinovic was very impressive in the second set, winning by a score of 6-3.
The third match went back on forth, with girls breaking each other consistently.
Ultimately, Lewis won the match and with it sealed a victory for the Wildcats by a score of 4-3. With the loss, the Rebels now move to 9-7 overall and 2-7 in SEC play.
This was the fourth time this season the Rebels have played in a match with the final score of 4-3, and they have not faired well in them with a record of 1-3.
The Rebels continue to live and die by the doubles point, and that was the difference in the match. This was definitely one of the greatest matches of the season though. It spanned a total of six hours and had some incredible matches to watch.
Head Coach Mark Beyers had this to say about the match:
“Sports is really cruel sometimes, but we fought our tails off. It comes down to 6-4 in the third. Proud of the girls for the effort. We just came up short. It’s unfortunate, but with only three indoor courts, it’s hard to have a home court advantage when the match takes six hours. The people who were here saw a tremendous college tennis match.”
Saturday at 1 p.m. the Rebels host the defending national champions, Vanderbilt. This will be a huge measuring stick match for the Rebels as they get a chance to bounce back after such a tough loss. It is also senior night and the Rebels will honor seniors Mai El Kamash, Marija Milutinovic and Allie Robbins.
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- Allie Sanford returns a serve in Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt. (Photo by: Ariel Cobbert)
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- Arianne Hartono prepares to serve in Saturday/s game against Vanderbilt. (Photo by: Ariel Cobbert)
