State Netmen Challenge Sixth-Seeded Virginia In NCAA Second Round; Fall In Close One, 4-2
State, which made its 14th consecutive NCAA appearance this season, ended the year 9-14 overall. Virginia (24-3) moves into next week's NCAA round of 16 in Tulsa, Okla. Saturday's meeting was the first ever between the schools in men's tennis.
The Bulldogs earned the first point of the match by posting victories at the No. 1 and 3 doubles positions after falling at No. 2. At No. 1, MSU's duo of Luiz Carvalho and Florent Girod upset Nick Meythaler and Rylan Rizza, the nation's 21st-ranked tandem, 8-6. Then, at No. 3, Bulldogs Matt Armstrong and Jose-Carlos Pinto broke serve in the last game of their match with Cavaliers Marko Miklo and Stephen Rozek to notch a close 9-7 victory.
In singles, however, Virginia would take a commanding lead early on, taking the first set in five of the six matches, and State would eventually find it a bit too difficult to overcome those deficits.
The Cavs evened the score when Rizza downed Pinto 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 2 position. MSU regained the lead at 2-1 when Max Fomine registered what would prove to be MSU's lone singles win of the afternoon, a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over UVA's Rozek at the No. 4 spot. But Virginia would claim the next three matches to get the team win.
Minutes after Fomine's win, the Cavaliers tied the score at 2-2 when Miklo closed out a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Carvalho at No. 3 to improve to an impressive 21-2 on the year. Moments after that match, UVA grabbed its first lead of the day at 3-2 when Doug Stewart, ranked ninth nationally in singles, completed a 7-6(6), 6-2 victory against MSU's 37th-ranked Romain Ambert at the top position.
The last two matches of the day (courts 3 and 6) were both very close, each going to a third set. But Virginia's Darren Cohen, who has now lost only five times in 25 outings this year, gained an early service break in the third at the No. 6 spot and would never relinquish that lead, downing MSU rookie Arnaud Roussel 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to clinch the victory for the Cavs. Just before that match finished, State's Girod had gained momentum at No. 5, winning the second set against Meythaler.
"I couldn't have asked much more of our guys today, or at the end of this season," MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. "After going through some tough times in March and April, they gave everything they had and gave us a great chance to get into the ?’Sweet Sixteen'. Unfortunately, we did not quite make it. But considering we weren't even sure we were going to make the NCAA tournament three weeks ago, it is a credit to our team that we had that possibility very much within reach today. Virginia is 24-3 for a reason and we gave them a great fight."
State, which started the 2004 season 7-3 and 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference, suffered nine consecutive league losses when its top player, Ambert, was hampered with an ankle injury in mid-March. When he returned to full strength in late April, the Bulldogs went 2-2 from that point. MSU upset 17th-ranked Tennessee in the SEC Championship before falling to eventual champion Georgia in the quarterfinals, earned their 14th-straight NCAA bid, defeated Wake Forest to advance to the second round of the national championship for the second time in three years under Guichard's guidance, and very nearly punched their ticket to the NCAA round of 16 Saturday on the home courts of the NCAA's No. 6 seed.
"I am very proud of the way our guys came together at the end of the year and achieved some very positive things," Guichard continued. "I am already excited about starting next season."
#10 VIRGINIA 4, #29 MISSISSIPPI STATE 2
DOUBLES -
Luiz Carvalho/Florent Girod (MSU) def. #21 Nick Meythaler/Rylan Rizza (UVA) 8-6;
Darrin Cohen/Doug Stewart (UVA) def. Romain Ambert/Max Fomine (MSU) 8-2;
Matt Armstrong/Jose-Carlos Pinto (MSU) def. Marko Miklo/Stephen Rozek (UVA) 9-7.
SINGLES -
#9 Stewart (UVA) def. #37 Ambert (MSU) 7-6(6), 6-2;
Rizza (UVA) def. Pinto (MSU) 6-1, 6-1;
Miklo (UVA) def. Carvalho (MSU) 6-2, 6-3;
Fomine (MSU) def. Rozek (UVA) 6-4, 6-4;
Girod (MSU) vs. Meythaler (UVA) 3-6, 6-3, susp.;
Cohen (UVA) def. Arnaud Roussel (MSU) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
(numbers preceding names are current national rankings)