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Home Doubleheader on Tap for @MizzouTennis
2/22/2019 2:59:00 PM | Tennis
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Mizzou tennis team returns home to the Mizzou Tennis Complex for a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 23 against Central Arkansas and Missouri State. The Tigers first host Central Arkansas at 1 p.m. before a 5 p.m. match against Missouri State. Admission to the matches is free.
Missouri enters this weekend ranked 34th in the Oracle/ITA Division I Women's Rankings, which ties the highest ranking in program history. The Tigers also clocked in at No. 34 on March 24, 2004.
The Tigers are riding a five-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) and Minnesota (4-3). The Tigers extended their winning-streak to five with a 4-3 comeback victory over Minnesota on Feb. 16 after trailing the Golden Gophers 3-0.
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 an 8-1 singles record, including a 7-1 mark at No. 1 action, this spring. Sophomore Ellie Wright also is 8-1 on the spring season at No. 4 competition, while freshman Vivien Ábrahám is 6-0, mostly at No. 5 singles.
Following the doubleheader, Mizzou opens SEC action next weekend with a pair of road matches. The Tigers travel to Nashville, Tenn., to play No. 7 Vanderbilt on Friday, March 1 at 3:30 p.m. CT and face Kentucky on Sunday, March 3 at 10 a.m. CT in Lexington, Ky.
