May 9, 2012

Video Preview - Head Coach Mark Beyers | NCAA Notes | NCAA Tournament Central

OXFORD, Miss. – The Ole Miss women’s tennis team is finishing up exams and preparing to host the NCAA first and second rounds this weekend at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center/Galtney Courts.  The Rebels will face Southern University in the first round Friday at 2 p.m. following the Illinois/Rice match.

The Rebels (17-8) earned the No. 16 seed in the field of 64 and are hosting the first two rounds for the first time since 1999.  

The Rebels have been led all year by a senior class who looks to go out with another trip to the Sweet Sixteen.  Kristi Boxx, Abby Guthrie and Gabby Rangel have led the Rebels to the NCAA Championships all four years of their careers, including the Sweet Sixteen in 2010.  

Boxx is presently ranked No. 10 in the nation in singles and No. 7 in doubles with Guthrie.  Earlier this year, Boxx became the second player in the history of the program to reach 200 wins combined in singles and doubles.

Southern won the Southwestern Athletic Conference for the third straight year to earn the league’s automatic bid.  The Jaguars (10-10) are led by senior Carlista Mohammed, who was named the SWAC Tournament Most Valuable Player.

Illinois (18-7) and Rice (16-8) will meet at 11 a.m. Friday and the winners of both matches will play Saturday not before 3 p.m. for the right to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

Heading into this weekend, the Rebels are 8-2 at home this year.  Beyers talked about the lift that the team gets from playing in front of the home crowd.

For complete information on the NCAA first and second rounds, go to www.OleMissSports.com.  For those that can’t make it to the matches, there will be live scoring in addition to a live blog.  

Follow the Rebels on twitter at @OleMissWTennis and on facebook at www.facebook.com/OleMissWTennis.