The fourth time was the charm to renew the traditional Alabama-Tennessee rivalry on the tennis courts. The Crimson Tide experienced rain-outs on March 4, April 9 and April 10, but was able to put away the Lady Volunteers on April 12, winning 5-2 and taking the Southeastern Conference Western Division championship in the process.
In the short amount of match time that was played in the first three days, Alabama’s Alex Clay, No. 11 in her region, upset Tennessee’s Maria Sorbello, No. 5 in her region, in a convincing fashion, 6-3, 6-1, giving the Tide a 1-0 lead going into the continuation of the match Tuesday.
In the first 10 minutes of play on Tuesday, Alabama got two more singles victories to build a quick 3-0 lead. Alabama’s star freshman Mary Anne Macfarlane, No. 33 in the nation, got her team-best 25th singles win on the year against Lady Vol Natalie Pluskota 6-2, 6-3.
“[Having the two quick wins] gave our team a lot of momentum,” Macfarlane said. “It surely helped Alexa [Guarachi] finish her match there at the end.”
Head coach Jenny Mainz had no problems seeing the effect of the two quick wins.
“Huge momentum,” Mainz said. “It was definitely a lift, a big boost for the team.”
The Tide’s other quick victory was notched by Taylor Lindsey, who beat Tennessee’s freshman Whitney Wofford 7-5, 6-1.
Alabama’s victory in the overall match was sealed with Courtney McLane’s comeback win over Tennessee’s Hungarian sophomore Kata Szekely. After winning the first set 7-6, McLane found herself down 3-1 in the second set, just to win four straight games and finish the match with a 7-6, 6-4 win.
“[McLane]’s been playing confident, authoritative tennis lately,” Mainz said. “She did a good job of jumping out and taking control of her match when she needed to. She’s been in this situation for us before, and it showed today.”
The Lady Vols’ lone singles point came from freshman Millie Nichols, who sent Alabama’s Antonia Foehse to a 16-11 singles record for the year in the 4-6, 5-7 defeat. Tennessee also took the doubles point in a perfect 3-0 sweep.
Beating a formidable opponent like the No. 14 Lady Vols would come as a shock to anyone who saw the Tide on March 13, after it fell to 0-3 in the SEC at the hands of the South Carolina Gamecocks.
“We had a real heart-to-heart discussion on the way back from South Carolina,” McLane said. “We talked about it, and we thought if we took things match by match that we could win out. We haven’t done it yet. We have to beat Auburn on Saturday, but it feels good to go this far.”
The Tide rode its seven-game winning streak to clinch the SEC West on Tuesday, following through on a goal set early in the season.
“[Winning the West] was one of the goals we set for ourselves as a team at the beginning of the season,” Mainz said. “We feel like we can compete in the West every year, and we were picked to win the West this year, so it’s nice to meet that expectation. Having such a decisive clinch like this is promising.”
There are certainly more goals to accomplish for the Tide.
“We still have to be ready to play Auburn on Saturday,” Macfarlane said. “We have to come to practice each day ready to get better on our individual things.”
The Tide will end the regular season with a home meet against Auburn on Saturday before traveling to Knoxville, Tenn., to play in the SEC Championship tournament on April 21-24.
