Women?s Tennis Falls at Mississippi State
3/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
STARKVILLE, Miss. ?? The No. 57 ranked Alabama Women’s Tennis team fell to No. 64 Mississippi State Sunday by a score of 5-2 in Starkville, Miss.
“It was a disappointing loss,” Alabama head coach Jenny Mainz said. “We had all kinds of opportunities and failed to take advantage of them. Mississippi State did a good job. We gave them every reason to believe they were in the match from the beginning. They are a team that we needed to get to early and we had a lot of difficulty doing that. Our schedule is so challenging that we cannot fail to take of the opportunities when we have them.”
Alabama split the first two singles matches with the Tide’s Nicole Briceno beating MSU's Daniela Juskova 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3 while UA's Bianca Svensson lost to DeAndra Saddler 6-0, 6-1, at No. 5.
The two teams split the next two matches as well when Shelley Godwin lost to Elna de Villiers 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 while the Tide's Andrea Brenes beat MSU’s Valeriya Makarycheva 6-3, 6-2 at No. 6.
Up 3-2 at that point, Mississippi State clinched the match when UA’s Mari Muller fell 6-2, 7-6 at No. 1 singles to Martina Banikova. MSU’s Renee Joseph close out the match by beating the Tide’s Alice Tunaru 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 4 slot.
The Tide lost the doubles point to fall behind 0-1. Alabama’s Brenes and Muller beat the Bulldog tandem of Banikova and Makarycheva 8-4 to win No. 1 doubles. It marked the Tide duo’s first SEC doubles win of the dual match season. Brinceno and Godwin fell to MSU’s de Villiers and Saddler 8-5 at No. 2 while Svensson and Tunaru lost 8-2 to Joseph and Juskova 8-2.
Alabama, which falls to 5-6 overall and 1-3 in the SEC, steps out of conference play for its next two matches, facing Washington State in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday before traveling to Michigan on Saturday.
“We have a nice sabbatical from conference play this next week and we need to saddle up and get back our horse,” Mainz said.
Mississippi State 5, Alabama 2
Starkville, Miss. ?? 03-11-07
DOUBLES ?? Andrea Brenes/Mari Muller (UA) def. Martina Banikova/Valeriya Makarycheva (MSU) 8-4; Elna de Villiers/DeAndra Saddler (MSU) def. Nicole Briceno/Shelley Godwin (UA) 8-5; Renee Joseph/Daniela Juskova (MSU) def. Bianca Svensson/Alice Tunaru (UA) 8-2.
SINGLES ?? Banikova (MSU) def. Muller (UA) 6-2, 7-6(3); de Villiers (MSU) def. Godwin (UA) 6-2, 6-3; Briceno (UA) def. Juskova (MSU) 6-3, 6-0; Joseph (MSU) def. Tunaru (UA) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2; Saddler (MSU) def. Svensson (UA) 6-0, 6-1; Brenes (UA) def. Makarycheva (MSU) 6-3, 6-2.
