University of Missouri
Vanderbilt
@MizzouTennis Opens SEC Action with Road Matches at No. 6 Vanderbilt, No. 25 Kentucky
2/28/2019 2:35:00 PM | Tennis
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Mizzou tennis team opens the Southeastern Conference portion of its schedule with a two-match road trip this weekend. The Tigers open SEC competition at No. 6 Vanderbilt on Friday, March 1 at 3:30 p.m. at the Vanderbilt Currey Tennis Center. Missouri then travels to Kentucky to take on the No. 25 Wildcats on Sunday, March 3 at 10 a.m. CT at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center.
Missouri enters the weekend ranked 39th in the Oracle/ITA Division I Women's Rankings, the second week in a row the team found itself in the rankings.
The Tigers are riding a seven-match winning streak, dating back to a 7-0 sweep over Morgan State on Jan. 30. During the stretch, Missouri also has wins over Virginia Tech (4-1), Wichita State (4-2), Memphis (4-3), Minnesota (4-3), Central Arkansas (4-1) and Missouri State (4-0).
The last time out, Missouri earned two wins in a home doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 23, with wins over Central Arkansas (4-1) and Missouri State (4-0).
Junior Mackenzy Middlebrooks was named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week on Feb. 20 after leading the Tigers to those 4-3 wins over Memphis and Minnesota. She was the first Tiger tennis player to claim SEC weekly honors since Missouri joined the conference, and the first to earn any conference player of the week award since Yelena Olshanskaya on April 20, 2004. Against Memphis on Feb. 15, Middlebrooks fought back from a 5-3 third set deficit to claim a 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over Alisha Reayer in the match-clinching victory for Missouri. One day later, Middlebrooks helped Mizzou recover from a 3-0 deficit to take down Minnesota, 4-3. She posted her fifth-straight win with a 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-2 defeat of the Golden Gophers' Tina Kreinis.
Middlebrooks owns a 10-1 singles record, including a 9-1 mark at No. 1 action, this spring. Sophomore Ellie Wright also is 9-1 on the spring season at No. 4 competition, while freshman Vivien Ábrahám is 7-0, mostly at No. 5 singles.
Vanderbilt is ranked No. 6 in the nation and is 5-3 on the year. Kentucky, ranked 25th, is 10-1 in the spring, with the team's only loss a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Ohio State in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend.
Following this weekend's action, the Tigers return to the Mizzou Tennis Complex next weekend for three matches. The Tigers face No. 10 South Carolina on Friday, March 8 at 5 p.m. before a doubleheader on Sunday, March 10, with matches against Florida at Noon and UMKC at 4 p.m.
