Bama Blanks MState In Opening Round Of SEC Women's Tennis Championship
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Mississippi State's competition in the 2006 Southeastern Conference Women's Tennis Championship was short lived with No. 6 seed Alabama blanking the No. 11 seed Lady Bulldogs 4-0 in the opening round of the annual league championship.
UA opened the match with the doubles victory with the Crimson Tide's 14-ranked pairing of Ashley Bentley and Robin Stephenson clinching the first point over State's duo of Martina Banikova and Elna de Villiers 8-2.
"We were definitely out-played. Alabama's had a good year. They've proven themselves and we lost to a good team today," said MSU head coach Tracy Lane. "It's hard coming into a match when you've already given up a point. We've had to work through that the last couple of weeks. Our main focus is just trying to build character within the program right now and make improvements in our game. We're ready to move forward," said Lane.
Bama continued its impressive court play in singles with three straight points on courts No. 1, 3 and 6. UA's Stephenson, ranked 19th, topped MSU's Renee Joseph on court one 6-2, 6-3, while Mari Muller quickly worked State's Daniela Juskova 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3. The on-court temperature of the match between the Lady Bulldogs and Tide topped 100 degrees.
Once the match was determined the other three matches in progress were suspended.
MState finishes the 2006 tennis campaign at 3-16 overall and 1-10 in SEC play.
First Round
Final Score: No. 6 Alabama 4, No. 11 Mississippi State 0
Doubles
No. 1 #14 Bentley/Stephenson , UA, def. Banikova/ de Villiers, MSU, 8-2
No. 2 Brenes/Muller, UA, vs. Joseph/Juskova, MSU, 7-3, suspended
No. 3 Day/Godwin, UA, default
Singles
No. 1 #19 Robin Stephenson, UA, def. Renee Joseph, MSU, 6-2, 6-3
No. 2 #102 Ashley Bentley, UA, vs. Martina Banikova, MSU, 6-3, 2-0, suspended
No. 3 Mari Muller, UA, def. Daniela Juskova, MSU, 6-1, 6-1 (0:56)
No. 4 Natalie McElveen, UA, vs. Elna de Villiers, MSU, 6-3, suspended
No. 5 Shelley Godwin, UA, vs. Tatiana Feit, MSU, 6-2, 4-2, suspended
No. 6 Sofia Ayala, UA, default