The No. 16 Ole Miss Rebels
proved to be too much for the
short-staffed Mississippi State
women’s tennis team as it went
down 7-0 on Senior Day Saturday
at the A.J. Pitts Tennis
Centre.
The Lady Bulldogs did not
score a point for the sixth time
this season and fi nished the regular
season with an overall record
of 7-13 while fi nishing 1-10 in
SEC play. State did not get off to
a bad start on a day in which the
lone senior on the team, Olesya
Tsigvintseva, was honored, but
things quickly changed in favor
of the Rebels.
The duo of Tsigvintseva and
freshman Naomi Tran took an
early 3-1 lead in their doubles
match against the No. 4 ranked
duo in the nation of Kristi Boxx
and Abby Guthrie only to see
that lead evaporate in the Saturday
afternoon sun as they lost
seven consecutive games to lose
the match 8-3. Things continued
to go badly for the Lady
Bulldogs as they went down 2-0
after doubles play and then went
on to lose all fi ve singles matches
in straight sets.
Head coach Daryl Greenan
said the Rebels proved they deserve
to be ranked No. 16.
“Ole Miss was tough. I mean,
they are a top-20 team and then
some for good reason, and they
looked strong and healthy at the
end,” he said. “Our girls put up
a fi ght; they just didn’t have a lot
of answers for Ole Miss today.”
An issue for the Lady Bulldogs
all year has been the amount of
players they have had on their
roster. State had only fi ve players
dress against Ole Miss and
will only have the same fi ve going
to Oxford to compete in the
SEC Championships. The team
started the year with seven active
players on its roster but lost two
of the players throughout the
SEC season. Greenan said the
girls that remain have much to
be proud of with the amount of
work they each have put in.
“These girls that were on the
court today have handled a lot
of adversity, and they’re giving
it their best down
the stretch here,”
he said.
Tsigvintseva
is one of those
women who has
stuck it out and
has done so for
four years here at
MSU. Her career was full of accomplishments,
and her leadership
will be sorely missed. She
has posted a total of 82 victories
and represented the Maroon and
White very well. Tsigvintseva
said she will miss the camaraderie
of the team the most.
“I am going to miss for sure
the coaches, the girls and my
team. I’ve been with them a long
time already, and we’ve gotten to
be very good friends,” she said.
“I’m just going to miss all of
this.”
A positive for the team is that
the core will be back for next season.
The team has two returning
freshmen, Petra Ferancova and
Tran, and two returning sophomores,
Rosaline Dion and Alexandra
Perper. However, Perper
is the only returning player who
had a winning record in dual
match play at 11-8. Greenan
said with the experience the returning
players have gained and
a strong recruiting class, this
team has the potential to turn
things around next season.
“I like the group we have
coming back; they’re all hard
workers. They’re all going to
continue to get better, and
they’re young, so we have a lot
of time to work with them,” he
said. “With a good recruiting
class, we should be able to move
up in the rankings.”
The Lady Bulldogs will travel
to Oxford for the SEC Championships
on April 19-22 to
wrap up the season. State will
meet the Vanderbilt Commodores
in the fi rst round, a team
that beat State 7-0 earlier in the
season. Greenan said it will be
tough, but he has confi dence
that his team will leave it all on
the court.
“We battled them pretty well,
and if we can go out there and
just do the best we can, we have
a shot at taking some matches
and possibly the upset,” he said.