Mississippi State
Ole Miss
MSU Lady Netters Fall 4-1 To Lady Rebels To Close Regular Season
April 14, 2007 | Women's Tennis
Mississippi grabbed the early 1-0 lead, taking the top court in doubles after a split at the No. 2 and 3 positions. State took a quick 8-1 victory on court #3 to start the day's action, with Lady Bulldogs Renee Joseph and Daniela Juskova downing Lady Rebs Kseniia Tokarieva and Carlin Cochran. UM evened things with an 8-2 win on court #2 by UM's duo of Nika Koukhartchouk and Preethi Subramanian over State's Elna de Villiers and DeAndra Saddler. Clinching the doubles point for UM, the duo of Ilona Somers and Soledad Podipnik held on for an 8-5 victory over Lady Bulldogs Martina Banikova and Valeriya Makarycheva at No. 1.
UM then claimed three of the first four matches complete in singles to clinch the victory.
First off the court, State's 71 st-ranked Banikova fell in a 6-2, 6-1 match against 74th-ranked Lady Reb Somers to give UM a 2-0 lead. UM took a 6-4, 6-4 win at court #3 with Tokarieva prevailing over State's Juskova. After taking the first set 7-6(5), State's de Villiers went on to take her match with a 6-4 win in the second set versus UM's Koukhartchouk at the No. 2 spot for MSU's first point of the day.
Clinching the match for the Lady Rebs was UM's Podlipnik, taking her match 6-3, 6-2 over Joseph at the No. 4 position. The last two courts were suspended with the teams tied at court #5 and State up on court #6. State's Saddler was in a tiebreaker in the first set with UM's Subramanian at No. 5, while Makarycheva had taken her first set 6-2, and was up 3-1 in the second, when her match was suspended with Cochran at No. 6.
The Lady Bulldogs will be back in action this Thursday, April 19, when they open competition in the first round of the 2007 Southeastern Conference Championship. State, the No. 11 seed, will face sixth-seeded host Kentucky at 9 a.m. CT that day.
Mississippi 4, Mississippi State 1
Oxford, Miss. ?€“ 04-14-07
DOUBLES ?€“ Ilona Somers/Soledad Podipnik (UM) def. Martina Banikova/Valeriya Makarycheva (MSU) 8-5; Nika Koukhartchouk/Preethi Subramanian (UM) def. Elna de Villiers/DeAndra Saddler (MSU) 8-2; Renee Joseph/Daniela Juskova (MSU) def. Carlin Cochran/Kseniia Tokarieva (UM) 8-1.
SINGLES ?€“ #74 Somers (UM) def. #71 Banikova (MSU) 6-2, 6-1; de Villiers (MSU) def. Koukhartchouk (UM) 7-6(5), 6-4; Tokarieva (UM) def. Juskova (MSU) 6-4, 6-4; Podlipnik (UM) def. Joseph (MSU) 6-3, 6-2; Saddler (MSU) vs. Subramanian (UM) 6-6, susp.; Makarycheva (MSU) vs. Cochran (UM) 6-2, 3-1, susp.
(numbers preceding names are current national rankings)
Players Mentioned
