State's Ambert Selected For NCAA Singles Championship
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State men's tennis standout Romain Ambert has been selected to compete in the 2004 NCAA Singles Championship May 26-31 in Tulsa, Okla., as announced by the NCAA Division I Selection Committee Thursday. With Ambert's selection, it marks the 16th-straight season MSU has had a singles or doubles participant in the NCAA Individual Championships.
Ambert, a native of Toulouse, France, earned his fourth career appointment to the field, making him only the second Bulldog netter ever to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship four times. The other was all-American Matthieu Ballay, who accomplished the feat from 1996-99.
A two-time, all-American and four-time, all-Southeastern Conference selection, Ambert has had one of the most successful careers in MSU tennis history. He is 97-47 overall in singles during his four seasons in Starkville, winning nearly 70 percent of his matches while facing the nation's top competition in many of those contests. He stands sixth all-time at MSU when tallying singles and doubles victories, having notched 166 total wins.
Ambert has been ranked as high as third nationally in singles during his career, and fourth in the country this year, but is currently No. 37 due to an ankle injury that has hampered his ability to compete at 100 percent for much of this spring.
Prior to his competition in the singles field, Ambert will join the rest of the MSU net squad in team competition, as the Bulldogs make their 14th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Team Championship. State meets Wake Forest in first-round action next Friday in Charlottesville, Va., and will be attempting to advance to the ?Sweet Sixteen? for the 11th time in the last 14 seasons.