SEC revealed the women’s tennis players of the week, for the March 22nd week.
Women Player of the Week: Rebeka Mertena, Tennessee. Mertena, shined once again in Tennessee’s dominant weekend against Auburn and Alabama. She notched yet another ranked victory in singles and is just one away from 100 total singles wins in her career at UT. It wasn’t singles play where the impact was felt the most from the Lady Vols’ highest-ranked singles player, it was her doubles.
She teamed up with Esther Adeshina and won a pair of ranked showdowns on Court 1, helping Tennessee jump start its momentum which would carry through to singles play.
The wins marked the first time this season that Mertena faced a ranked doubles opponent in each match over a given weekend and she handled the test with class, earning 6-4 victories against Auburn’s No. 20 team of Ansari and Arseneault and Alabama’s No. 58 Bencheikh and Hiser. She currently ranks No. 34 in singles, highest on the team, and has climbed up the doubles charts to No. 39, being the only ranked doubles pair on the Lady Vols’ squad.
Women’s Freshman of the Week: Mia Kuprees, Texas A&M. Kuprees, in the opening match of the week, had a shift around in doubles now playing with Mary Stoiana, and in doing so moved from playing court 3 doubles up to court 2 doubles.
The match with LSU’s Kylie Collins/Nina Geissler, went to a tiebreaker (6-6(1-1)) but was left unfinished due to the doubles point being clinched. In singles No. 106 Kupres went to work as she outlasted Geissler in a three-set match on court 3, she went down in the first set but won the next two sets, and ultimately the match (5-7, 6-1, 6-1).
This win was number 12 on the season, and secured her three-match win streak. In the team’s second match of the week, they hosted one of the premier teams in the nation, Miami. In singles Kupres put on an incredible display over Pfennig again on court 3 (7-6(3), 6-4).
She secured the second point in this match which helped flip the momentum for the Maroon & White as they dropped the doubles point. Kupres now holds a 13-1 singles record and is on a four-match win streak following the Miami match, her 13 wins in dual match singles play lead all other players in the Southeastern Conference.
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