On an emotional-filled senior day, lone senior Luiz Carvahlo’s farewell was bittersweet as intrastate-rival and third ranked Mississippi defeated the 20th ranked Netmen 4-3 Saturday afternoon at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
The Netmen fall to 11-7 overall and 6-5 in Southeastern Conference play, which is good for second place in the Western Division behind UM.
UM gained the first point of the contest by taking the doubles point 8-3 at both the first and second spots.
Rebel head coach Billy Chadwick said, “I told the guys after we won the doubles point, that they would have to be prepared to give three more hours to win. This is perhaps the best State team in five years, and we knew it would be a difficult assignment to beat them on the road and on senior day.”
Indeed, UM was in for a fight.
The Netmen evened the score at one all when junior Florent Girod surprised the 109th ranked Karim Alayli at the sixth position. Girod improved to 14-3 in dual match play on the season.
From that point on, Mississippi ran off three consecutive points to seal the title and victory.
UM’s Eric Claesson attributed a portion of the victory to the large Rebel fans that traveled to the match.
“The crowd was unbelievable,” Claesson said after the match. “I felt like we were at home. This was a great team effort.”
State, however, claimed the final two points of the contest.
Junior Jose-Carlos Pinto defeated Jakob Klaeson 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 at the fifth slot, and freshman Philippe Frayssinoux downed 102nd ranked Erling Tveit at the third position 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.
“We have no reason to hang our heads after this match, losing to a great Ole Miss team that hasn’t lost to too many people anywhere this year,” State head coach Sylvian Guichard said. The Netmen will now travel to Athens, Ga., and play at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, where they will compete in the SEC Championship held April 21-24.
The sixth seeded Netmen will take on 11th seeded Arkansas Razorbacks on Thursday at 3 p.m.