Rebels Start At Michigan Invitational<\/p>\n
OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 With the Australian Open beginning this week that means one thing: tennis is back. The 2013 season begins for the Ole Miss women\u2019s tennis team this weekend at the Michigan Invitational.<\/p>\n
The Rebels return five players from last year’s team that finished among the top 25 for the third time in four years, but youth will be served in 2013. The roster features two juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen. They might be young, but there is no shortage of talent on the roster, which has head coach Mark Beyers looking forward to the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very excited to get started,\u201d said Beyers, now in his 12th year. \u201cThe first week of practice was fantastic. It looked like the girls stayed very busy over the break. We are looking forward to keeping score against some great opposition. It will give us an idea of where we are. We lost three seniors who contributed a lot to our program. We\u2019ve got a very young team, and hopefully we can find out how they respond to that type of competition. This weekend will help us prepare for our first dual match.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Michigan Invitational will give the Rebels that opportunity as the tournament features three teams in the top 20, including the Wolverines at No. 16, the Rebels at No. 18 and Georgia Tech at No. 20. South Florida is ranked No. 43.<\/p>\n
Each team will play three rounds of doubles and three rounds of singles. The Rebels will start the tournament playing singles against Michigan Friday at 5:30 p.m. Saturday\u2019s action will include singles versus Georgia Tech followed by doubles against South Florida. Play concludes Sunday with singles versus USF and doubles with Michigan and Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n
REBEL RAMBLINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022The Rebels opened the spring at No. 18 in the first ITA team rankings. This marks the fourth year in a row for the team to begin the season in the top 25.<\/p>\n \u2022Five players return from the 2012 season, including All-SEC honorees Caroline Rohde-Moe (Junior), Erin Stephens and Julia Jones (sophomores). Rohde-Moe is ranked No. 30 in the latest singles rankings. She posted an 11-6 record in the fall.<\/p>\n \u2022 Several newcomers highlight a young team, including freshman Marija Milutinovic, who was here in the fall and Mai El Kamash, who just arrived last week. Also making her debut for the Rebels this weekend is Santa Shumilina, who was here last year, but had to sit out.<\/p>\n \u2022The Rebels start dual-match play Jan. 22 at William & Mary before returning home to host the ITA Kickoff Weekend Jan. 27-28. Ole Miss plays Yale Sunday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. and then faces Illinois\/Vanderbilt Monday, Jan. 28 at TBA.<\/p>\n \u2022 There will be a new scoring system in doubles this season that will be in place until the ITA National Indoor Championships Feb. 8-11. Doubles matches in progress when the point is clinched will be abandoned, as long as both coaches agree to that prior to the start of the match. There will also be \u201cno ad scoring,\u201d meaning that when the game hits 40-40, the next point will win the game. Finally, a tiebreaker will take place if both teams are tied at 7-7.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"