The University of Mississippi Athletics
Women's Tennis Earns Automatic Berth to NCAA Sweet Sixteen
6/21/1999 | Women's Tennis
May 6, 1998
OXFORD, Miss. For the first time in the history of the program, the No. 7 nationally-ranked Ole Miss women's tennis team earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships Sweet Sixteen as announced by the NCAA Championships Subcommittee Wednesday. The NCAA Championships will be held May 21-29 at South Bend, Ind., as the University of Notre Dame hosts the tournament.
Ole Miss has now made it to the Sweet Sixteen six out of the last eight years. In 1996 the Lady Rebels won the NCAA Midwest Regional to advance to the Sweet Sixteen and then last year they captured the NCAA Central Regional to go to the final 16.
"This is a first for us to be selected as one of the top 10 teams to go straight to the NCAA final 16," Head Coach Jerry Montgomery said. "It is a credit to our players who have worked so hard, made lots of sacrifices and stayed positive. We're not going to be satisfied with just getting to the final 16. This team is very eager to take it several steps further as we play in the NCAAs."
Defending champion Stanford heads the top 10 seeds in the NCAA Championships, followed by Florida, Georgia, Duke, Texas, California, Ole Miss, Brigham Young, Arizona State and Wake Forest. The remaining six spots in the championship field will be determined by the winners of six regionals to be played at various sites around the country May 15-17.
The Lady Rebels are currently 16-5 overall and finished 8-4 in the SEC, which placed nine teams in postseason play. Florida, Georgia and Ole Miss have been mainstays in the top 10 all year, while a total of seven SEC teams are among the nation's top 25.
Ole Miss we be looking to advance past the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1993 when they reached the quarterfinals. The Lady Rebels got to the round of 16 last year before falling to Arizona State.
With the Lady Rebels selection to the final 16 Ole Miss becomes one of only three schools in the nation to have both its men's and women's teams advance to the sweet sixteen automatically. The other two are Stanford and Texas.
The women's NCAA individual selections will be announced later this week. Agnes Muzamel and Ivona Mihailova are expected to make the 64-player singles field, while Muzamel and Courtenay Chapman are likely to receive a bid in the 32-team doubles draw.