No. 69 Missouri tennis made two stops on the road this weekend, first playing No. 14 Oklahoma on March 7, before traveling to face Arkansas on March 9. Despite high expectations following a bounce-back win against No. 55 Mississippi State, the Tigers fell short in both matches.

Their first match came against Oklahoma, their highest-ranked opponent of the season. To open the doubles section, Missouri senior Inah Canete and junior Andrea Artimedi dropped the first match 6-1 on court two, falling to Sooner sophomore Chloé Noël and freshman Salakthip Ounmuang. Graduate student Lailaa Bashir and freshman Zoe Lazar suffered the same result on court three, losing 6-1 to senior Ava Catanzarite and freshman Gloriana Nahum.

Oklahoma continued its dominance in the singles section, which began with Artimedi losing 6-0, 6-1 to senior Emma Staker. Tiger senior Mary Brumfield lost 6-1, 6-2 on court one against senior Alina Shcherbinina. To close out the match with a 4-0 sweep, Catanzarite grabbed the final win for the Sooners over freshman Gian Octa, with a final score of 6-1, 6-3.

With a full day to regroup, the Missouri tennis team traveled to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the seemingly vulnerable Razorbacks, who then held a 2-8 record. Brumfield and freshman Korina Roso quickly lost 6-1 to senior Olga Bienzobas and junior Carolina Gomez Alonso. Missouri struggled to gain any momentum against its final unranked conference opponent. Bashir and Lazar suffered a 6-4 loss at the hands of freshman pair Jimena Gomez Alonso and Katarina Pavlechova.

In singles, the Tigers simply couldn’t recover, losing close games across the board. Missouri’s only singles win came from Roso on court six, who took down Gomez Alonso 6-2, 6-4. A surprising series of upsets led Missouri to its most unexpected loss of the season, falling 4-1 to Arkansas. Missouri still holds a 10-5 record (1-4 SEC) heading into its toughest stretch of the season.

The Tigers’ schedule only gets harder from here with a brutal doubleheader against No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 9 Texas. Those matches will take place on Friday, March 13 and Sunday, March 15 in Columbia.

Edited by Colin Simmons l csimmons@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com
Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com