The University of Mississippi Athletics
Men's Tennis Wins; Advances
6/21/1999 | Men's Tennis
May 23, 1998
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ATHENS, Ga. - The No. 6 nationally-ranked Ole Miss men's tennis team won the doubles point and the numbers three, four and six singles matches to hold off 12th-ranked California 4-1 in the first round of the NCAA Championships Saturday. The Rebels will face second-seeded LSU Sunday at 4 p.m., in the quarterfinals.
"Cal has a solid team and we knew they would be tough," Head Coach Billy Chadwick said. "I am particularly pleased with the play at the bottom of our lineup. That is the strongest part of Cal's lineup and we won two out of three. Anders Stenman really played a great match at No. 6 singles for us. To beat LSU, we are going to have to play hard at every position and learn how to play during the downsides of a match like we did today."
In the Rebels march to the semifinals last year, Vikrant Chada won all three of his matches and Saturday he came up big again, coming back to defeat Adrian Barnes 2-6, 7-6, 6-2 to clinch the win for Ole Miss. It marked the fifth time this year that Chada has come back from a set down to win a match.
Ole Miss took a 1-0 lead in the match by capturing the always important doubles point with wins at No. 1 and 2 doubles. At No. 2 doubles, Sebastien Lami and Chada downed Nathan Jackson and Chris Santoso 8-3. The Rebels top duo of Sebastien DeChaunac and Martin Sjoqvist battled back and forth with Cal's Minh Le and Bobby Mahal to a 7-7 tie before the Ole Miss pair broke and held serve to give the Rebels the point.
Rebel freshman Anders Stenman gave Ole Miss a 2-0 lead when he dominated David Sutton at No. 6 singles. California's Nathan Jackson made it 2-1 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Martin Sjoqvist at the No. 2 position.
Lami, another freshman in the Rebs lineup, put Ole Miss up 3-1 as he held off Le 7-6, 7-6 at No. 3 singles. He snapped a four-match losing streak and won his 25th match of the year.
With the win, the Rebels have now advanced to the quarterfinals four years in a row. In 1995 they made it to the finals, in 1996 they got to the quarterfinals and last year they reached the semifinals.
Ole Miss and LSU have met twice this year with the Tigers winning both matches. They defeated the Rebels 5-2 in Oxford and then 4-1 in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
NCAA MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS Athens, Ga.SINGLES#1 Sebastien DeChaunac (OM) vs. Bobby Mahal (CAL) suspended#2 Nathan Jackson (CAL) def. Martin Sjoqvist (OM) 6-4, 6-4#3 Sebastien Lami (OM) def. Minh Le (CAL) 7-6(7), 7-6(4)#4 Vikrant Chada (OM) def. Adrian Barnes (CAL) 2-6, 7-6(0), 6-2#5 James Shortall (OM) vs. Kian Raiszadeh (CAL) suspended#6 Anders Stenman (OM) def. David Sutton (CAL) 6-2, 6-3DOUBLES#1 DeChaunac-Sjoqvist (OM) def. Le-Mahal (CAL) 9-7#2 Lami-Chada (OM) def. Jackson-Santoso (CAL) 8-3#3 Shortall-Stenman (OM) vs. Sutton-Scott Kintz (CAL) suspended
