#37 MSU Falls To #16 Kentucky 5-2 On The Road In Men's Tennis
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Mississippi State's 37th-ranked men's tennis squad dropped a 5-2 decision at 16th-ranked Kentucky Friday evening on the road. The loss, which was MSU's eighth in a row, dropped the Bulldogs to 7-11 overall, 2-8 in Southeastern Conference action. UK improved to 17-7, 7-3.
The Wildcats took the early lead by notching 8-4 victories at the top two positions in doubles action. UK was led by its 14th-ranked team of Rahim Esmail and Jesse Witten, who downed Bulldogs Luiz Carvalho and Jose-Carlos Pinto at the No. 1 spot.
UK quickly jumped to a 3-0 lead in singles, winning in straight sets at the No. 1 and 5 positions. At No. 1, the eighth-ranked Witten downed MSU's Romain Ambert 6-3, 6-1. Ambert was playing in just his third singles match in State's last eight outings, having battled through severe tendinitis in his ankle during that time. At No. 5, Esmail was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Bulldog Florent Girod.
With State leading by a set at the No. 2 and 3 positions at that point, and the teams having traded sets at No. 6, Kentucky's Nate Emge then provided the match-clinching win at No. 4 in comeback fashion. Emge, who held off eight set points in the second set with MSU's Max Fomine serving at 5-4, would finally claim a service break and then win the final two games for a 6-3, 7-5 victory to secure the team win for UK.
In the last three matches of the day, all of which went three sets, State would claim two. At the No. 6 spot, Wildcat Alex Hume posted a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 triumph over Bulldog rookie Arnaud Roussel. MSU's Carvalho then registered a hard-fought 7-6(4), 5-7, 1-0(7) win over UK's Evan Austin at No. 3 to break a seven-match losing skid. State's Pinto then outlasted UK's 103rd-ranked Tigran Martirosyan in a match that featured three grueling tiebreakers 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 1-0(8). That win ended a five-match skid for the MSU sophomore.
"Kentucky has as much talent as just about anybody in the conference and I thought we did a pretty good job of working against that tonight," MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. "We were very close to coming back in this match after getting down 3-0, but UK just played great tennis to get a couple of big points and close out the win."
State concludes the 2004 regular season Sunday, taking on 24th-ranked Vanderbilt in Nashville at 1 p.m. MSU will then compete this coming weekend (April 22-25) in the 2004 SEC Championship, which will also be held in the Music City.
#16 KENTUCKY 5, #37 MISSISSIPPI STATE 2
DOUBLES - #14 Rahim Esmail/Jesse Witten (UK) def. Luiz Carvalho/Jose-Carlos Pinto (MSU) 8-4; Evan Austin/Alex Hume (UK) def. Max Fomine/Florent Girod (MSU) 8-4; Romain Ambert/Matt Armstrong (MSU) vs. Nate Emge/Tigran Martirosyan (UK) 5-6, susp.
SINGLES - #8 Witten (UK) def. #31 Ambert (MSU) 6-3, 6-1; Pinto (MSU) def. #103 Martirosyan (UK) 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 1-0(8); Carvalho (MSU) def. Austin (UK) 7-6(4), 5-7, 1-0(7); Emge (UK) def. Fomine (MSU) 6-3, 7-5; Esmail (UK) def. Girod (MSU) 6-3, 6-3; Hume (UK) def. Arnaud Roussel (MSU) 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.
(numbers preceding names are current national rankings)