Women’s Tennis Central: #23 Tennessee vs. #56 Mississippi State/#46 Ole Miss

KNOXVILLE – Opening up the Southeastern Conference slate, the 23^rd-ranked Tennessee women's tennis team hosts No. 56 Mississippi State on Friday, March 4, at noon ET and No. 46 Ole Miss Sunday, March 6, at noon ET.

The Lady Vols (6-2) concluded their nonconference schedule with a trio of wins, coming on Feb. 19 and 20. This weekend's SEC-opener marks the first time UT has started SEC play at home since 2019 and the Big Orange enter the weekend on a seven-match home win-streak in SEC play.

For Friday's match, parking is located in SC40 at the Kingston Pike Building. Additional information concerning parking is available here.

Also on Friday, there will be free Chick-fil-A and pizza available to fans (while supplies last). On Sunday, there will be Dunkin' Donuts coffee and donuts available to fans, as well as commemorative 'Tennessee Tennis' coffee mugs (while supplies last).

In addition to giveaways concessions and alcoholic beverages will be sold on the concourse at Barksdale Stadium for the first time. The concession stand will be open for all 2022 home matches played outdoors. For more information, see here.

For fans unable to attend, live stats will be provided by UTsports.com and can be found here. For the first time there will be Redzone coverage of Friday SEC matches, courtesy of Cracked Rackets. To watch the featured coverage from around the league, tune in here. Live streaming will also be available through Playsight and can be found here.

HEAD COACH ALISON OJDEA
"Our message is clear as day; our conference is wide open this year and we are in control of our own destiny. Let's focus on ourselves and take care of the details each day and we will be ready for match days."

LAST TIME OUT
Tennessee cruised to three wins, two weekends ago, defeating Indiana, 4-0, on Saturday, Feb. 19. The Lady Vols then bested Bellarmine, 4-0 and 7-0, in doubleheader action on Sunday, Feb. 20.

Esther Adeshina was masterful in singles for Tennessee over the weekend, playing a total of 35 games and winning 32 of them. In matches that played to a finish, she won 24 of 25 games played.

Tenika McGiffin posted a solid singles day against Bellarmine, taking two wins on court 1. Another solid weekend performer was Callie Creath who carded three singles wins and a pair of doubles victories. Senior Kylie Duckworth posted two singles wins against the Knights and added three doubles wins: one with Olivia Symons against Bellarmine and two with Esther Adeshina, one against Indiana, one against Bellarmine.

RANKING THE LADY VOLS
Tennessee has three singles and two doubles in the most recent ITA Individual Rankings, released on Feb. 23:

Singles
Rebeka Mertena – No. 30
Tenika McGiffin – No. 39
Elza Tomase – No. 57

Doubles
Daria Kuczer/Tenika McGiffin – No. 8
Tenika McGiffin/Olivia Symons – No. 57

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Mississippi State (8-3) is coming of two wins last weekend in a doubleheader against Southern Miss and James Madison in Starkville. The Bulldogs downed the Golden Eagles 4-1 and the Dukes 4-0. The matchup with MSU marks the 50^th all-time meeting between the programs.

Emmanouela Antonaki, who owns 15 wins this season, is the only singles player for State in the ITA Individual Rankings, slotted No. 69. In doubles, Magda Adaloglou and Chloe Cirotte are ranked No. 39. The pairing is a team-high 9-2 this season and is 6-0 when playing in the No. 2 spot.

In singles, Antonaki, Adaloglou and Cirotte are all riding five-match win streaks. The three State players have a combined singles record of 24-4 in dual matches this year.

SCOUTING THE REBELS
Ole Miss (6-2) comes to Rocky Top after starting the weekend at Georgia. The Rebels take on the Bulldogs at 3 p.m. ET Friday in Athens, Ga.

Ole Miss picked up a big win at ITA Kickoff Weekend, taking down then-No. 14 Michigan, 4-1, in the Atlanta Regional hosted by Georgia Tech. The Rebels fell in the region finale to Old Dominion, 3-4.

Two Rebels are in the ITA Rankings in singles and one pair in doubles. Tiphanie Fiquet comes in ranked No. 32 in singles, while Sabina Machalova is No. 105. On the doubles side, the pair of Ludmila Kareisova and Kelsey Mize are ranked 22^nd.

Fiquet has not played for the Rebels since Jan. 29^th when they played Michigan. Sabina Machalova is the wins-leader for OM at 14-7. She is 3-1 at No. 1 this year and is 4-4 against ranked opponents.

Ole Miss is undefeated in dual action at No. 3 and No. 6 singles and they are 5-0 at No. 1 doubles.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Tennessee leads the all-time series over Mississippi State, 38-11. The Lady Vols are 17-2 at home against MSU and won the last meeting, 4-0, in the opening round of the 2021 SEC Tournament in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The last time UT hosted the Bulldogs for the SEC opener was in 2009 when the Lady Vols won, 5-2.

Tennessee also leads Ole Miss, 29-21, in the all-time series. The Big Orange is 16-7 in Knoxville and has taken the last three contests against the Rebels.

UP NEXT
Following opening weekend in the SEC, the Lady Vols hit the road for the first time since January to face South Carolina on March 11 in Columbia, S.C. and No. 13 Florida on March 13 in Gainesville, Fla.

FOLLOW THE LADY VOLS!
Fans can keep up with the latest Tennessee women's tennis news by following the program on its Twitter (@Vol_WTennis), Instagram (@Vol_WTennis) and Facebook accounts.

Women’s Tennis Central: #23 Tennessee vs. #56 Mississippi State/#46 Ole Miss

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Players Mentioned

Esther Adeshina

Callie Creath

Kylie Duckworth

Daria Kuczer

Tenika McGiffin

Rebeka Mertena

Olivia Symons

Elza Tomase

University of Tennessee Athletics