Mississippi State
Vanderbilt
MSU Tennis Upsets No. 22 Vanderbilt To Open SEC Season
March 04, 2011 | Men's Tennis
Coupland, who clinched the match for the Maroon and White for the second time in his career and the first time this season, picked up an impressive victory at the No. 1 position. Coupland defeated the Commodores No. 36 nationally ranked Ryan Lipman in a three-set battle. Coupland took the first set, 6-4, and trailed 6-5 in the second set when rain forced the match to be moved indoors. Once hitting the courts in MSU's historic McCarthy Gymnasium, Coupland forced a second-set tiebreaker and had three matchpoints but couldn't convert and eventually dropped the second set, 7-6(2). In the third set it was all Coupland who took an early lead and eventually handed Lipman just his third loss in dual match action with a third set score of 6-1. This victory also marked the 30th win for Coupland in his two-year career thus far at Mississippi State.
"George (Coupland) just battled the entire match and faced adversity at times but didn't give up," Coach Per Nilsson said. "This entire team is filled with guys that never give up no matter what and I am very proud of this win today."
MSU improved to 5-4 on the year and has won four of its last five matches. Vanderbilt dropped to 8-3 and has now lost two-straight matches. The Bulldogs improved to 33-11 all-time against the Commodores, an impressive 16-3 at home and have now won two-straight against the SEC-foe. This also marks the first win in a conference opener for MSU since the 2005 season when it defeated then-ranked No. 12 Kentucky at home, 5-2.
Vanderbilt took the early advantage in the match by clinching the doubles point. MSU's Louis Cant and Malte Stropp were the highlight for the Maroon and White in doubles by defeating Vandy's 49th-ranked tandem Adam Baker and Lipman, 8-6, at the No. 1 position. Cant and Stropp have now won three of their previous four matches. At the No. 2 spot, State's James Chaudry and Artem Ilyushin fell to Charlie Jones and Alex Zotov of the Commodores, 8-6. The doubles point was clinched for Vandy at the No. 3 position where State's duo of Coupland and Tanner Stump dropped a tiebreaking battle to Blake Bazarnik and Braynt Salcedo fo Vandy, 9-8(4). It was the ninth time in 11 matches that Vanderbilt had claimed the match-opening doubles point.
MSU jumped onto the scoreboard first at the No. 2 slot in singles, where No. 92 ranked Ilyushin of the Bulldogs earned an identical-set victory over Vanderbilt's Baker, 6-2, 6-2. Ilyushin improved to 5-3 in dual match play, has won five of his previous six matches and is a perfect 4-0 against Vanderbilt in his career.
State increased its lead shortly following when MSU's 73rd nationally ranked Cant claimed his fifth dual match victory of the season by defeating Vanderbilt's Bryant Sacledo, 6-1, 6-2, at the No. 5 spot. It was the 10th victory of the season for Cant who has now won four of his last five.
In his first career conference match, Bulldog freshman Zach White did not disappoint with an impressive win at the No. 6 position. White battled Vandy's Zotov in a back-and-forth opening set before eventually winning in a tiebreaker, 7-5, and then claimed the second set, 6-4, to give MSU a 3-1 advantage before rain forced the match to be pushed indoors till a winner was determined.
"Zach's (White) win was huge for us and it was his first conference match ever," Coach Nilsson said. "Louis (Cant) and Artem (Ilyushin) are veterans and have been through this before but Zach is a freshman and to win like he did in his first SEC match is impressive."
With Coupland clinching the match for MSU play was suspended in the remaining two matches at courts three and four. Bulldog newcomer Chaudry was able to maintain his perfect dual match record (5-0) although he trailed 5-2 in the third set when play was suspended. MSU freshman Stropp held a set lead and was up 3-2 in the second when play was halted.
"It was a good win for the team and we knew we were really close to taking down a highly ranked opponent soon and it happened today because of the way these guys battled," Coach Nilsson said. "This is the SEC and there are no easy matches and we have another tough one on Sunday when Kentucky comes to town."
The Bulldogs will ride the wave of momentum into Sunday's showdown against 12th-ranked Kentucky at 1 p.m. CT. The match will be played at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre where admission is free to all MSU home tennis matches and live stats will be available at www.mstateathletics.com.
#43 Mississippi State 4, #22 Vanderbilt 1
Starkville, Miss. - 3/4/11
DOUBLES
No. 1 - Louis Cant/Malte Stropp (MSU) def. #49 Adam Baker/Ryan Lipman (Vanderbilt) 8-6; No. 2 - Charlie Jones/Alex Zotov (Vanderbilt) def. James Chaudry/Artem Ilyushin (MSU) 8-6; No. 3 - Blake Bazarnik/Bryant Salcedo (Vanderbilt) def. George Coupland/Tanner Stump (MSU) 9-8(4); (Order of Finish: 1,2,3).
SINGLES
No. 1 - Coupland (MSU) def. 36 Lipman (Vanderbilt) 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-1; No. 2 - #92 Ilyushin (MSU) def. Baker (Vanderbilt) 6-2, 6-2; No. 3. - Chaudry (MSU) vs. Jones (Vanderbilt) 6-3, 1-6, 2-5, susp.; No. 4 - Stropp (MSU) vs. Bazarnik (Vanderbilt) 7-5, 3-2, susp.; No. 5 - #73 Cant (MSU) def. Salcedo (Vanderbilt) 6-1, 6-2; No. 6 - Zach White (MSU) def. Zotov (Vanderbilt) 7-6(5), 6-4; (Order of Finish: 2,5,6,1).
Players Mentioned
