Despite dropping the opening doubles point, Mississippi State’s 24th-ranked men’s tennis team rallied to claim a 4-3 victory over 54th-ranked Memphis Wednesday afternoon at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre on the MSU campus. The win improved MSU to 3-1 overall. The Tigers fell to 1-1.
The match, which saw State win for the third straight time in the series, was the first meeting between the squads since 1988. MSU also improved to 72-8 in non-conference matches at Pitts since 1988.
Memphis swept doubles for the opening point of the match, but things were very tight throughout. After 12th-ranked Tigers Ben Stapp and Lee Walker claimed an 8-5 win over Bulldogs Romain Ambert and Rene-Charles Combette, the other two matches would utlimately be decided in tiebreakers. Memphis would claim both of those–9-8(2) at the No. 2 position and 9-8(5) and No. 3–to lead 1-0.
State charged out in singles, however, claiming the first set in four matches to set the stage for the comeback.
Tying the match at 1-1 for State was Combette. The 76th-ranked senior, who was playing singles for the first time this spring (had been healing an injury), cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Brendon Malarkey at the No. 5 position. State went up 2-1 via the talents of the junior all-American Ambert, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Stapp at the No. 1 position.
Memphis reknotted the score at 2-2 when Alex Jago downed Bulldog Matt Armstrong 6-2, 6-3 at No. 6. MSU reclaimed the lead at 3-2 with a victory from senior Jerome Le Belicard who upset Walker, ranked 118th, 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 for his third straight win after 11 losses. The Tigers evened things again with a triumph from Joe Schmulian who edged Bulldog Florent Girod 6-4, 6-4 at No. 4.
That left Bulldog Max Fomine and Tiger Alex Bucewicz on the court at the No. 3 spot to decide the match. Fomine had gained an early advantage by taking the first set 6-1. The MSU junior served for the second set twice at 5-4 and 6-5, but Bucewicz fought back to force a tiebreaker. The players battled back and forth in the breaker with Fomine finally pulling it out 10-8 and the victory 6-1, 7-6(8).
“We knew that Memphis was going to challenge us hard today. They have a solid team, once that will make some noise this year,” MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. “This was another good example of our guys having to fight hard to win and they did that. They applied themselves after we lost doubles and got the job done. We still have a lot of areas we can improve in and we will continue to work on those.” State now hits the road for its next two matches. The Bulldogs will have a very tough test Sunday at No. 32 Tulane. MSU will then battle fifth-ranked, arch-rival Mississippi in the sixth-annual River Hills Cup in Jackson next Thursday, Feb. 13. The Bulldogs will return home Feb. 19 to welcome 44th-ranked South Alabama.