Tennis set for matches against border rival Missouri

Friday, April 6, 2007

If you think that the Border rivalry with Missouri isn’t as fierce in non-revenue sports such as tennis, think again.

Junior tennis players Lauren Hommell and Stephanie Smith already have one trip to Columbia under their belts, and it wasn’t a pleasant journey.

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Kansas will go to Missouri on Saturday hoping to gain a victory after three consecutive losses. Kansas defeated Missouri 6-1 last season. A victory against Missouri this year would provide a key conference victory for a Kansas team that sits 2-4 in the Big 12 Conference and 4-11 overall.

“People are rude to you when you go out to eat,” Hommell said.

Smith said that so far funny faces and rude comments have been the extent of their troubles. However, there is a rumor that the team is not allowed to drive a van marked with “Kansas,” because a Missouri fan once put water in the van’s gas tank.

“I’m not sure if that’s true,” Smith said. “It didn’t happen to me.”

Practical jokes aside, Kansas will go to Missouri on Saturday hoping to gain a victory after three consecutive losses. Kansas defeated Missouri 6-1 last season. A victory against Missouri this year would provide a key conference victory for a Kansas team that sits 2-4 in the Big 12 Conference and 4-11 overall.

“We need to beat the — well I hate to say lesser teams — but the more beatable teams,” Hommell said.

Missouri (6-10) would fit into that category. Missouri is 1-7 in the Big 12 Conference and enters Saturday’s match having lost seven of their last eight.

Hommell and Smith said that the team had been concentrating on improving in doubles at practice.

“It seems that every time we get the doubles point, we get the win,” Smith said.

Smith is right on about the doubles point, which goes to the team that wins at least two of the three doubles matches. Kansas is 4-0 when winning the doubles point and 0-11 when losing it. Kansas does benefit by having one of the strongest No. 1 doubles teams in the Big 12. Junior Elizaveta Avdeeva and sophomore Edina Horvath are currently 12-3 and 5-1 in the Big 12.

A victory for Kansas would also give Kansas three points and a 15-13 advantage against Missouri in the annual Border Showdown series, which awards points for all sports. Kansas currently trails 12-13, but won the event last year 23-17.

“We’re all keyed up this match,” Smith said. “Hopefully we can get a victory and have success the rest of the season.”

After Missouri, Kansas finishes the season with four Big 12 matches against Kansas State, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Kansan sportswriter Rustin Dodd can be contacted at rdodd@kansan.com.

— Edited by Kelly Lanigan

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