Tennis on the road to Alabama

After a disappointing outing last weekend against both Southeastern Conference teams from Mississippi, the University of Arkansas women’s tennis team plans on returning to its winning ways this weekend in Alabama in a pair of matches against Alabama and Auburn.

The Lady Razorbacks, 10-8 (0-8), begin the weekend with a Friday match in Tuscaloosa against the 29th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide at 5:00 p.m. Last weekend, the Tide fell in two consecutive home matches against No. 6 Vanderbilt and No. 5 Kentucky.

Leading the way for Alabama this season is junior Robin Stephenson. Stephenson is currently ranked 8th in the country in singles with an 11-6 record on the No. 1 court.

Last year in Fayetteville, Iliana Pacheco and Melissa Cornett each captured singles wins in three sets despite a 5-2 Alabama win. All-time, the Lady Razorbacks are 9-10 against the Crimson Tide.

On Sunday, the Lady’Backs travel the 190 miles to Auburn for a Sunday battle against the unranked Tigers. Last weekend, the Tigers also faced top-ten Kentucky and Vanderbilt, but were blanked by both and in all straight sets by Kentucky.

“These two matches are extremely important because they could give us the momentum we need for success in the SEC Tournament,” said head coach Michael Hegarty. “We will be ready for some extremely competitive matches.”

Live scoring is available for the Alabama matchvia rolltide.com. For more information on Arkansas tennis or any other Lady’Back sport, please visit www.ladybacks.com.