Bulldog Netters Set To Open NCAA Championship Friday vs. Wake Forest
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State's men's tennis team will open play in the 2004 NCAA Championship this Friday, May 14, in Charlottesville, Va. The 29th-ranked Bulldogs will meet 42nd-ranked Wake Forest Friday at 2 p.m. ET at the Snyder Tennis Center on the University of Virginia campus.
With the start of the tournament, State will be making its 14th consecutive appearance in the NCAA field, one of only seven schools (Florida, Georgia, MSU, Southern Cal, Stanford, TCU and UCLA) in the nation that have earned that distinction.
MSU (8-13) is guided by third-year head coach Sylvain Guichard, who has now led the Bulldogs to NCAA bids in each of his first three seasons at the helm. WFU (11-10) is coached by eighth-year mentor Jeff Zinn, who has guided the Demon Deacons to all five of their NCAA Championship appearances, including four in a row.
State is paced by two-time, all-American Romain Ambert, who ranks sixth all-time at MSU in total victories. The senior is currently ranked 37th nationally. Wake junior Derrick Spice is ranked 57th in the nation at present.
The Bulldogs and Demon Deacons have met in men's tennis on only four previously recorded occasions, with State leading 3-1, and have not clashed since the 1991 season. That year, MSU took a 6-2 decision over WFU in the first round of the Miami Quad in Miami, Fla. The teams also split decisions in Starkville in 1972 and 1973, and MSU claimed a 5-1 victory in a neutral site affair in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1990.
"We are ready to start competition," Guichard said. "The NCAA tournament is always a new beginning because you start out even with 63 other teams. Being in the tournament is a goal in itself. Once you get there, then you focus on different goals. Our guys went through a lot of adversity this season, so getting an NCAA bid was big. But now we have the opportunity to achieve even greater things in the tournament.
"Wake Forest will be a difficult first-round match for us. They beat Tulane, who we split with, and beat South Carolina, who we lost to. So we will have to be well-prepared to pull out a win."
The winner of the MSU-WFU contest will advance to Saturday's second round to meet the winner between 10th-ranked host Virginia (who is the country's No. 6 seed overall) and American University. That 1 p.m. ET match would be for a spot in the NCAA Team Championship's round of 16, which will be held May 22-25 in Tulsa, Okla.
Live statistics of this weekend's matches at UVA will be available on the Internet at www.virginiasports.com.
MSU IN THE 2004 NCAA MEN'S TENNIS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
First and Second Rounds
May 14-15, 2004 - Charlottesville, Va.
Friday, May 14
#10 Virginia vs. American - 10 a.m. ET
#29 Mississippi State vs. #42 Wake Forest - 2 p.m. ET
Saturday, May 15
Second Round Match (to advance to round of 16 at Tulsa, Okla.) - 1 p.m. ET
(numbers preceding team names indicate current ITA national rankings)