Bulldog Netmen Finish Among Nation's Top 30
Friday's ranking improved upon last year's No. 42 finish by 13 places. The Bulldogs also extended the school's NCAA appearance streak to 14 consecutive years, one of only seven teams (Florida, Georgia, MSU, Southern Cal, Stanford, Texas Christian and UCLA) in the country that have a streak of that magnitude intact.
State, which started the 2004 season 7-3 and 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference, suffered nine consecutive league losses when its top player, all-American Romain 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, all in championship competition.
MSU upset 17th-ranked Tennessee in the SEC Championship before falling to eventual champion Georgia in the quarterfinals. In the NCAA Championship, they defeated Wake Forest to advance to the second round, and then nearly punched their ticket to the round of 16 on the home courts of the NCAA's No. 6 seed, Virginia, a day later, losing to the Cavaliers in a close 4-2 outcome in Charlottesville.
"We are very proud of what we were able to accomplish this season. Given the circumstances, a top 30 finish is a great achievement by our team," MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. "After going through some tough times in March and April, the guys gave everything they had and provided us a really good chance to advance to the OESweet Sixteen'. We didn't quite make it, but considering we weren't even sure we were going to make the NCAA tournament in late April, it is a credit to our players that we had that possibility within reach in the second round at Virginia.
"We knew at the beginning of the season that we had a good team. After all the adversity, I am proud of the way our guys came together at the end of the year and achieved some positive things that we can build on. I am excited about continuing that momentum as we start working toward next season."