Mississippi State
South Florida
Hakeem Clinches Match For MSU Over South Florida For Dogs Second-Straight Win
March 16, 2010 | Men's Tennis
"South Florida is a really good team, especially at home," said head coach Per Nilsson. "They gave us a great match and we were fortunate to get the win."
For the third-straight match and the fifth time in six outings MSU won the doubles point. State's doubles team of Louis Cant and Chris Doerr got things started for the Maroon and White by winning for the fifth time in six matches by taking down the Bulls duo of Romain Deridder and Peter Frank, 8-3, at the No. 3 spot. Freshly ranked MSU tandem George Coupland and Artem Ilyushin, who stand at No. 67 nationally, clinched the doubles point for State with an 8-6 win at the No. 1 position over Jamal Adderly and Thomas Estrada of USF. MState's Antonio Lastre and Daniel Sanchez fell to 0-4 on the road this season, slipping up at No. 2 to South Florida's Wael Kilani and Yannick Yoshizawa, 8-6.
State's lone senior Doerr dropped an identical-set bout at the No. 5 slot to sophomore Mark Oljaca of USF, 6-4, 6-4, which helped USF even the score at one all.
MSU's sophomore Ilyushin got back on the winning track with a straight-set victory at the No. 3 position over the Bulls' Frank, 6-2, 6-1. At the No. 4 spot, MSU's Lastre won his second-straight match with a straight-set takedown of his own against South Florida's Deridder, 6-2, 6-4, to extend the Bulldogs lead to two.
South Florida inched closer to the Bulldogs with a win at the No. 2 position, where State's 101st-ranked Coupland had his two-match win streak snapped with a three-set loss to USF's Adderly, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Hakeem, who was seeing his first action since Jan. 29, snapped a three-match losing skid in his impressive come-from behind win at the No. 6 position to clinch the match for the Maroon and White. Hakeem who was facing Juan Carlos Acuna of USF, claimed the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6(3), and trailed a tiebreaker in the second set 6-2, but rallied to claim the set and the match, while clinching the match for MSU for the first time in his young career.
With the match clinched for the Bulldogs, MSU's 52nd-ranked sophomore Cant fell in a tough three-set bout to 104th-ranked sophomore Wael Kilani, which included a third-set tiebreaker at the No. 1 slot, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(6), to make the final score end in MSU's favor 4-3.
"We are doing much better job winning the big points," said Nilsson. "Hrehan (Hakeem) came through big time and came back and clinched it for us."
MSU will return to the courts this Sunday, Mar. 21 at noon CT at seventh-ranked Florida.
#46 MISSISSIPPI STATE 4, #66 SOUTH FLORIDA 3
Tampa, Fla. - 3/16/10
DOUBLES
No. 1 - George Coupland/Artem Ilyushin (MSU) Jamal Adderly/Thomas Estrada (USF) 8-6; No. 2 - Wael Kilani/Yannick Yoshizawa (USF) def. Antonio Lastre/Daniel Sanchez (MSU) 8-6; No. 3 - Louis Cant/Chris Doerr (MSU) def. Romain Deridder/Peter Frank (USF) 8-3; (Order of Finish: 3,1,2).
SINGLES
No. 1 - #104 Kilani (USF) def. #52 Cant (MSU) 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(6); No. 2 - Adderly (USF) def. #101 Coupland (MSU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; No. 3 - Ilyushin (MSU) def. Frank (USF) 6-2, 6-1; No. 4 - Lastre (MSU) def. Deridder (USF) 6-2, 6-4; No. 5 - Mark Oljaca (USF) def. Doerr (MSU) 6-4, 6-4; No. 6 - Hrehan Hakeem (MSU) def. Juan Carlos Acuna (USF) 7-6(3), 7-6(8); (Order of Finish: 5,3,4,2,6,1).
Players Mentioned
