No. 26 MSU Netmen Fall 5-1 At No. 4 Mississippi
May 25, 2016 | Men's Tennis
The loss, which was the ninth straight the Bulldogs have suffered to the Rebels, dropped them to 10-10 overall, 3-8 in Southeastern Conference play. Mississippi improved to 17-4, 8-3 in the league.
UM gained the first point of the day with victories at the No. 2 and 3 doubles positions. The Rebels then posted convincing wins at the No. 3, 4 and 6 singles positions to clinch the triumph.
First off the court was senior Martin Selin, ranked No. 113 nationally, who downed MSU freshman Aymeric Henou 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 4 spot. Rebel Claes Lindholm followed with a 6-2, 6-0 triumph against Bulldog Michael Hailey. The MSU junior from Jackson was playing the first singles dual match of his career.
The match-clinching point for Mississippi would come from Catalin Gard at the No. 3 position, where he downed State's Jerome Le Belicard 6-1, 6-1. The Bulldogs' lone point of the day came at the top spot in the lineup. It was there that MSU's seventh-ranked Romain Ambert continued his impressive play this year with a 6-3, 6-1 ousting of UM's 17th-ranked Alex Hartman. The win was Ambert's 35th of the 2001-02 campaign. He improved to 16-3 in dual matches, 9-2 in the SEC, all while competing at the No. 1 spot this spring.
UM's fifth point of the match was notched by Paul Ciorascu at the No. 5 position with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Max Fomine. The final match the day, which featured State's 78th-ranked Rene-Charles Combette and 52nd-ranked Rebel Kristofer Stahlberg, was suspended in the second set by mutual agreement of the teams. Stahlberg led by a set with the players at 2-2 in the second.
Bulldogs Luiz Carvalho and David Ruiz both sat out the match due to injury. Carvalho, who has been battling a shoulder problem most of the year, felt more pain in that shoulder prior to the match. Ruiz, who had back surgery in late March to repair a problem he has had since February, is still not fully rehabilitated from that setback.
"We had some some tough breaks with injuries, but that wasn't the difference in this match," MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. "They (Mississippi) have a great team this year and they played very well today. We knew it would be tough to win here even if we had our team at full strength.
"But we aren't going to let this match discourage us. We have the SEC Tournament coming up and must focus on that now. The tournament is a big opportunity because every team is good and you never know what can happen."
The 2002 SEC Championship will be held next weekend, April 18-21, in Knoxville, Tenn. State is a lock to be the No. 9 seed in the event and will face eighth-seeded South Carolina, currently ranked 24th nationally, Thursday in the first round. The Gamecocks edged the Bulldogs 4-3 in Columbia to open the SEC slate this season. Finalized seedings and pairings for all teams will be released Sunday once all play around the conference has been completed.
#4 MISSISSIPPI 5, #26 MISSISSIPPI STATE 1
DOUBLES -- #24 Romain Ambert/Rene-Charles Combette (MSU) def. #34 Martin Selin/Kristofer Stahlberg (UM) 6-1, def.; Alex Hartman/Claes Lindolm (UM) def. Aymeric Henou/Jerome Le Belicard (MSU) 8-4; Paul Ciorascu/Catalin Gard (UM) def. Max Fomine/Michael Hailey (MSU) 8-3.
SINGLES -- #7 Ambert (MSU) def. #17 Hartman (UM) 6-3, 6-1; #78 Combette (MSU) vs. #52 Stahlberg (UM) - suspended; Gard (UM) def. Le Belicard (MSU) 6-1, 6-1; Selin (UM) def. Henou (MSU) 6-1, 6-2; Ciorascu (UM) def. Fomine (MSU) 6-2, 6-3; Lindholm (UM) def. Hailey (MSU) 6-2, 6-0.
(numbers preceding names are current national rankings)
