@MizzouTennis to Close Out Regular Season on the Road

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Mizzou Tennis team (11-14, 0-11 SEC) hits the road this weekend for its final matches of the regular season. The Tigers head to Knoxville, Tenn., to face No. 31 Tennessee (16-9, 2-9) on Thursday at 5 p.m. CT, then travels to Athens, Ga., for a Saturday tripleheader. Mizzou wraps up this year's SEC slate with a 10 a.m. CT matchup at No. 8 Georgia (13-5, 8-3), then finishes the 2018 regular season with a neutral-site doubleheader vs. Savannah State (3-14) beginning at 3 p.m. CT.

KILLER SCHEDULE CONTINUES

Mizzou's 2018 schedule continues to pack a wallop. After Saturday morning's matches, 14 of its last 16 contests will have come against teams in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national rankings at the time of the match (as a side note, all 14 are still ranked).
As the nation's premier tennis conference, the SEC leads all leagues with seven teams in the top 25 of this week's ITA national rankings, and 12 teams in the full top 50.
Saturday's match at No. 8 Georgia will conclude an eight-match stretch where
vs. No. 17 Auburn is the last of five consecutive matches against a team ranked in the top 25. Next weekend, Mizzou wraps up the SEC regular season at No. 31 Tennessee and No. 7 Georgia.
Mizzou is 11-2 vs. unranked competition this season.

DOUBLING UP

Doubles continues to be the strength of the Tigers, as Mizzou has won the doubles point in 15 of 25 matches this season. In all, Mizzou's doubles teams are 53-41 (.564) on the year, and 38-28 (.576) in dual play.
Sophomore Mackenzy Middlebrooks (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and freshman Ellie Wright (Gainesville, Fla.) lead the way with 20 doubles wins each on the season. Seventeen of those have come with each other, including a 16-4 mark in dual play.
Sophomore Serena Nash (Bradford, England) is close behind with 18 total doubles wins.

FIVE NEWCOMERS

Second-year Head Coach Colt Gaston has assembled a mix of veteran talent and young newcomers with this season's roster.
Four Tigers – Nash, a sophomore transfer from Oklahoma; and freshmen Wright, Marta Oliveira (Lisbon, Portugal) and Ally Noback (Alpharetta, Ga.) – made their team debuts in the fall.
A fifth – Taylor Gruber (Spicewood, Texas) – signed with Mizzou in November, graduated early from high school and joined the team in January.
The newcomers have accounted for nearly half (36) of the Tigers' 75 singles wins this season, and have had a hand in 50 of the team's 53 doubles victories.

SCOUTING TENNESSEE

The Vols lost both of their matches to the Mississippi schools last weekend to snap a three-match winning streak.
UT's top doubles pairing, Kaitlin Staines and Ariadna Riley, is ranked No. 58 in the latest ITA rankings. Tennessee does not have a ranked singles player.

SCOUTING GEORGIA

Georgia lost at Ole Miss, 4-3, last week, but came back to sweep Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are two matches back of the three-way tie for the SEC lead, but are also a match in front for the fourth and final double-bye to next week's SEC Tournament in Knoxville.
UGA's No. 1 player, Katarina Jokic, leads five Bulldogs in the ITA singles rankings at No. 9. Their No. 1 doubles team, Eleni Christofi/Morgan Coppoc, is No. 7 in the national rankings, while Jokic and Mariana Gould are No. 17.

SCOUTING SAVANNAH STATE

The Lady Tigers picked up their first win in four tries on Monday when SSU defeated North Carolina Central, 5-2, for their only MEAC win this season.

For all the latest on Mizzou Tennis, stay tuned to mutigers.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Schedule