State Netters Open NCAA Action With Solid 4-1 Win Over South Alabama
May 25, 2016 | Men's Tennis
With Saturday's win, the Bulldogs improved to 11-11 overall this season. The Sun Belt Conference champion Jaguars ended their campaign at 15-9 while suffering their first loss in seven matches. The victory also improved State's record in their opening match of the NCAA Team Championship to 10-2 in its 12 appearances. That mark includes seven seasons where MSU opened play in the national championship in the round of 16.
The Bulldogs earned the opening point of the day against South Alabama with tough victories at the No. 1 and 2 doubles positions. Winning first was MSU's duo of Luiz Carvalho and Jerome Le Belicard, who won 8-5 at the No. 2 position over Jaguars Evan Fowler and Clinton Jacobs. After being down 4-1 early, USA would claim an 8-6 victory at the No. 3 spot. But the 30th-ranked MSU duo of Romain Ambert and Rene-Charles Combette won the last three games of their match at No. 1 to down USA's team of Christian Thall and Kosta Zinchanka 8-4.
In singles, things were tight early as the teams split the six first sets played. But MSU would ride the three matches it had secured leads in to the team win.
South Alabama actually claimed the first singles match completed, which would ultimately be its only point of the day. That came at the No. 2 position, where Thall played a solid match to down State's 94th-ranked Combette 6-1, 6-4.
State reclaimed the lead at 2-1 when Ambert, ranked eighth nationally, held off USA's Zinchanka, ranked 55th, 6-2, 7-5 at No. 1. Ambert overcame a 5-4 (and one service break) deficit in the second set for the win, which was the sophomore's fifth in a row and his 18th in 21 singles dual matches this season. It was also his 37th victory of the year (now 37-9), making him only the third Bulldog in the modern era to notch 37 or more wins in a single year.
The Bulldogs would go up 3-1 in the contest when senior David Ruiz posted a hard-fought 7-6(3), 6-2 victory over Jaguar Zlatko Stupavsky at the No. 5 spot. It was only the second match Ruiz had played since undergoing surgery in March to repair a back problem he had suffered with most of the season.
MSU would then get the clinching point at No. 6, where true freshman Aymeric Henou, playing in his first NCAA match ever, held a 6-4, 4-2 lead on USA's Fowler when the Jaguar sophomore retired due to injury.
In the two suspended matches, USA's Heinrich Heyl was up 2-1, on-serve in the third set with MSU's Le Belicard at No. 3. At No. 4, State's Carvalho was down a set an had just begun a tiebreaker for the second set with Jacobs when play was halted.
"It feels very good to get this first one," MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. "South Alabama is a very dangerous team to have to play in the first round because they are as talented as we are. Our guys did a very good job of staying in their matches and fighting when things were tight to close out the win.
"Now we have a very tough challenge in Auburn tomorrow. Obviously, they have had a great season or they wouldn't be hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Championship. I said going into the season they were one of the teams to beat in the SEC and they proved that by reaching the finals of the SEC Tournament. We just have to go out there and put the ball in the court and fight. If we do those things, we will give ourselves a good chance to win."
Auburn (18-7) was a 4-2 winner over 68th-ranked East Tennessee State Saturday afternoon in their first-round match. In their only meeting of the season, AU downed State 5-2 in Starkville, but two of the Tigers' singles wins came in three-set affairs. The series between the teams in tied 15-15 in recorded history. MSU has won 10 of the last 12 clashes between the teams, but AU has taken the last two.
#28 MISSISSIPPI STATE 4, #37 SOUTH ALABAMA 1
DOUBLES -- #30 Romain Ambert/Rene-Charles Combette (MSU) def. Christian Thall/Kosta Zinchanka (USA) 8-4; Luiz Carvalho/Jerome Le Belicard (MSU) def. Evan Fowler/Clinton Jacobs (USA) 8-5; Vince Baudat/Heinrich Heyl (USA) def. Max Fomine/David Ruiz (MSU) 8-6.
SINGLES -- #8 Ambert (MSU) def. #55 Zinchanka (USA) 6-2, 7-5; Thall (USA) def. #94 Combette (MSU) 6-1, 6-4; Le Belicard (MSU) vs. Heyl (USA) - 4-6, 7-6(5), 1-2, susp.; Carvalho (MSU) vs. Jacobs (USA) - 4-6, 6-6, susp.; Ruiz (MSU) def. Zlatko Stupavsky (USA) 7-6(3), 6-2; Aymeric Henou (MSU) def. Fowler (USA) 6-4, 4-2, ret.
(numbers preceding names are current national rankings)
