OXFORD, Miss. — The University of Mississippi women’s tennis team lost to No. 7 Texas, 4-1, at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center on Sunday, despite capturing the doubles point early in the match.
Ole Miss (9-9, 3-8 SEC) opened the match strong, with Andrea Nova and Emily Welker, ranked No. 23, defeating Texas’s No. 53 pairing of Anastasia Abbagnato and Salma Drugdova, 6-2. Texas responded with victories on the remaining doubles courts, including Carmen Herea and Mathilde Ngijol-Carré defeating Ichino Horikawa and Beatrice Stagno, 6-3.
The decisive doubles match was between Ole Miss’s Alice Soulié and Riley Crowder and Texas’s Elizabeth Ionescu and Christasha McNeil. The Rebels trailed 5-3 but rallied to tie at 6-6, then won the tiebreaker 7-2 to clinch the doubles point.
In singles play, Texas took control by winning four straight courts. Before the match concluded, Stagno led Ngijol-Carré 6-3, 5-3, and Welker was competing against Herea in a third set, which went unfinished at 6-3, 3-6.
The Rebels will return to action Thursday at 4 p.m. against Mississippi State at the Palmer/Salloum Outdoor Tennis Center.
