Mississippi State
Florida State
#21 State Tennis Downs Florida State 4-0 In NCAA Lidlifter
May 13, 2011 | Men's Tennis
MSU advances to face 15th-ranked host Georgia Tech on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET at the Bill Moore Tennis Center on the campus of Georgia Tech. Tech advanced to Saturday's contest with a 4-0 win over Middle Tennessee Friday.
With Friday's win, State improved to 14-8 overall. FSU ended its season at 9-15. State won for the sixth straight time over the Seminoles.
In a fight for the early doubles point, MSU and Florida State battled a tough bout on all three courts Friday. In the second position, the Bulldog tandem of George Coupland and Artem Ilyushin ousted a talented FSU duo in Jordan Kelly-Houston and Blake Davis 8-3. Turning to court 3 action, Florida State's pair of Anderson Reed and Andres Bucaro took an early 4-1 lead over James Chaudry and Zach White of the Bulldogs. However, MSU would not bow down, fighting back to win five-straight games and go on to take an 8-5 win to clinch the doubles point for Mississippi State.
Court 1 was suspended at that point with FSU's 13th-ranked pair of Vahid Mirzadeh and Connor Smith up 7-6 and a service break on MSU's #37 duo of Louis Cant and Malte Stropp for the Bulldogs.
Following suit from doubles action, the singles slate was again another epic fight.
State actually took the first two singles matches and a 3-0 lead in fairly convincing fashion with straight-set wins at the No. 3 and 5 positions. In the fifth position for MSU was the 86th-ranked Cant who downed Florida State's Reed 6-4, 6-0. Cant has now won 11 of his last 12 matches. Taking his 12th-straight singles match was MSU's 92nd-ranked rookie Stropp as he ousted Connor Smith of the Noles 6-3, 6-4.
Despite the healthy MSU lead, Florida State was far from conceding the match at that point and the remaining four courts all went to third sets. All four matches could have gone either way, but in the end, the Bulldogs would prevail - they just weren't sure where the clinching point would come from.
But that point finally came, and it was from another freshman in White. After dropping the first set 6-4 to FSU's Bucaro, White fought back to take the second 6-4, sending the match into a third set. As the match progressed to an even 4-4 in the third, White took the next two games, breaking Bucaro on the final game to clinch his third match of the year for the Bulldogs.
At that point, the remaining three matches were suspended. At No. 1, MSU's 61st-ranked Ilyushin was tied 1-1 in third with FSU's 25th-ranked Mirzadeh. On court 2, Seminole Kelly-Houston was in a war with State's 60th-ranked Coupland in a third-set tiebreaker. And on court 4, Chaudry from MSU and Davis from FSU had just split sets.
"The match was a lot closer than what the score shows," MSU head coach Per Nilsson, who picked up his first-ever NCAA win as a head coach, said. "We did a great job fighting today and it was promising that we played as a group today. Everybody did what we wanted them to do besides the nerves of playing in the first round of the NCAAs. Tomorrow's match will be just as close as the one today because every team in this tournament is very talented."
Mississippi State is now 16-15 overall in the NCAA Tournament, 12-4 in the opening round. This is the first time the Bulldogs have advanced past the first round since their appearance in 2004.
#21 MISSISSIPPI STATE
4, #47 Florida State 0
May 13, 2011 - Atlanta, Ga.
2011 NCAA Championship - First Round
DOUBLES -Vahid Mirzadeh/Connor Smith (FSU) vs. #33
Louis Cant/Malte Stropp (MSU) 7-6 susp. ; George Coupland/Artem Ilyushin (MSU) def.
Jordan Kelly-Houston/Blake Davis (FSU) 8-3; James Chaudry/Zach White (MSU)
def. Anderson Reed/Andres Bucaro (FSU) 8-5.
Order of finish: 2,3,-.
SINGLES -#61 Ilyushin (MSU) vs. #25 Mirzadeh (FSU) 4-6,
7-6(1), 1-1 susp.; #60 Coupland (MSU) vs. Kelly-Houston (FSU) 6-4, 3-6,
6-6, susp.; #92 Stropp (MSU) def. Smith (FSU) 6-3, 6-4; Chaudry (MSU) vs.
Davis (FSU) 6-4, 5-7; #86 Cant (MSU) def. Reed (FSU) 6-4, 6-0; White (MSU) def.
Bucaro (FSU) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Order of finish: 5,3,6,-,-,-.
Players Mentioned
