The Ole Miss women’s tennis team hosted the ITA Southern Women’s Regional from Oct. 12-15, placing second in both the doubles and singles divisions.
Senior Alexa Bortles and freshman Isolde de Jong made it to the doubles’ final before losing to defending national champions Eden Richardson and Jessica Golovin of Louisiana State University in three sets (6-3,4-6,10-7). The singles’ final featured a matchup of senior Tea Jandric and Richardson that went the full three sets (6-3,1-6,6-2) before Richardson came out on top.
Allie Sanford hits a backhand during her doubles match against Georgia in 2016. File photo by Evan Turner
Ole Miss had three partnerships for the doubles’ division, featuring Bortles and de Jong, junior Anna Vrbenska and senior Allie Sanford, and sophomore Sabina Machalova and Jandric. All of the Ole Miss pairs advanced to the Round of 16.
Bortles and de Jong went on to defeat the duo of Monique Burton and Katia De La Garza from the University of Southern Mississippi in the Round of 32, Yu Fujioka and Milka Pasanen from South Alabama in the Round of 16, Taylor Bridges and Paris Corley from LSU in the quarterfinals and finally, Andie Daniell and Moka Ito of Alabama in the semifinals.
Vrbenska and Sanford would go on to beat Kennan Johnson and Anna Loughlan of LSU in the Round of 16 but ultimately lost to Daniell and Ito of Alabama in the quarterfinals. Machalova and Jandric were also victorious in their Round of 16 matchup before losing to Auburn’s Sophia Graver and Taylor Russo.
In the singles’ division Jandric, Bortles, Machalova, Vrbenska and junior Tereza Janatova all made it from the Round of 64 to the Round of 16.
Jandric and Janatova both had fantastic showings in their matchups leading up to their match against each other in the semifinals. Jandric defeated ULM’s Karolina Snita, Mississippi State’s Meredith Roberts, Auburn’s Graver and State’s Anastasia Rentouli on her way to the semifinals. Janatova had victories over Tulane’s Christina Sisti, South Alabama’s Alexandria Stiteler, LSU’s Johnson and Auburn’s Jaeda Daniel.
Jandric and Janatova’s semifinal match resulted in a victory for Jandric with her sweeping the match 6-2 and 6-1. Both players did well in the tournament to place two Rebels in the top four of the single’s tournament.
The finals lived up to the billing, with both matchups going the full three sets and the singles finishing through a tiebreaker.
No. 92 Jandric faced No. 38 Richardson of LSU in the final, and Richardson eventually claimed the first-place trophy. Richardson defeated Jandric 6-0 in the first set and 6-2 in the third set. Jandric won the second set 6-1 and was able to turn it into an exciting final after a slow start to the match.
Bortles and de Jong also took the second set in their championship match, with a 6-4 result, and forced the championship match into a tiebreaker. They ultimately came up short of a victory, losing 10-7.
The Rebels’ next tournament will be the Auburn Fall Invitational on Oct. 26-28.
