Rebel Netters Defeat Duke To Advance To NCAA Quarterfinals

May 17, 2003

ATHENS, Ga. - The No. 8 ranked Ole Miss men's tennis team lost the doubles point for the 10th time this season and rallied to take a 4-3 win over ninth-ranked Duke in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals Saturday at the McWhorter Courts on the University of Georgia campus. Ole Miss will face No. 1 ranked Illinois Sunday at 3 p.m. EST.

With the win, the Rebels improved to 21-4 on the season, while Duke ends its season at 22-6. It marks the sixth time for Ole Miss to reach the quarterfinals. The last time the Rebels reached the quarterfnals (1999), they won to advance to the Final Four.

"This was a hard-fought match between two very good teams that could have gone either way," head coach Billy Chadwick said. "I guess the committee got it right. It was a dead-even battle. We were fortunate to pull through. We got some huge points late in the third sets of the last three matches that were big. It's been a long time since I've seen an Ole Miss team fight as hard as they did today. We seem to be peaking at the right time."

Ole Miss led 3-2 in the overall score, when senior Alex Hartman finished off his comeback win at No. 1 singles to clinch the Rebels' victory. Hartman, ranked No. 7 in the nation, lost the first set to 25th-ranked Phillip King 6-3 but won the second set 6-1. The two battled back and forth in the third until Hartman broke to go up 6-5. At 40-15, Hartman slammed home the winner to send the Rebels to the quarterfinals.

I felt confident even though I was getting tired," Hartman said. "I just decided to go for it all at the end. This was a team win, though. Duke has great doubles, so we knew it would be hard to win the point. We have a great singles lineup as they do. Our guys just kept fighting. We have great team spirit. We just wanted it more."

Duke took the early lead by winning the doubles point. The Blue Devils took the No. 3 match 8-4. The first two courts were even most of the way. At the No. 1 position, Ole Miss' Hartman and Claes Lindholm were on serve with the Blue Devil team of King and Michael Yani until the Duke pair broke to go ahead 7-5. They served out to clinch the point, with No. 2 doubles all even at 7. Ole Miss improved to 7-3 on the season when losing the doubles point.

Ole Miss found themselves down 2-0 when senior Patrick Chucri lost to Blue Devil Jonathan Stokke at No. 5 singles. Chucri led the first set tiebreaker 5-2 before losing six of the next seven points. Stokke won the second set 6-3 to give Duke the 2-0 lead.

The remaining five courts would all go three sets. Sophomore Karim Alayli gave the Rebels their first point of the day when he held off Peter Shults in three sets. Alayli won the first set 6-4 and the Shults took the second 6-3. Alayli got up early in the third and went on to win 6-3 to make it 2-1 Duke.

Rebel sophomore Catalin Gard, ranked No. 23 in singles, evened the match with his gutsy performance at the No. 2 position against 35th-ranked Yani. Gard claimed the first set 6-3, but Yani turned it up a notch on his way to a 6-1 win in the second. Gard was able to hold off Yani in the third, 6-4. He has now won seven consecutive matches and 13 of his last 14.

With the match all square and courts one and two coming down to the wire in the third set as well, junior Paul Ciorascu, ranked No. 30, gave the Rebels the lead with his 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over 55th-ranked Ludovic Walter. Ciorascu has now won 13 in a row and 17 of his last 18 matches. He needs one more win to reach 40 for the season.

"It (match) could have gone either way," Ciorascu said. "When 'Cat' won, that gave me more momentum. Then I saw Claes had turned his match around. I felt pretty good then."

Lindholm was down in his match on court four to Duke's Jason Zimmerman but rallied to force a third-set tiebreaker. He led 4-2 in the breaker when Hartman clinched the win. Hartman has now won six in a row and seven of his last eight. His career win total now stands at 106.

Illinois defeated Washington 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals. Ole Miss leads the all-time series with the Illini 3-2. They defeated the Illini 4-3 in the quarterfinals in 1999.

NCAA TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS - ATHENS, Ga.
Third round

#8 Ole Miss 4
#9 Duke 2

SINGLES
#1 Alex Hartman (OM) def. Phillip King (DU) 3-6, 6-1, 7-5
#2 Catalin Gard (OM) def. Michael Yani (DU) 6-3, 1-6, 6-4
#3 Paul Ciorascu (OM) Ludovic Walter (DU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
#4 Jason Zimmerman (DU) vs. Claes Lindholm (OM) 6-4, 1-6, 6-6, sus.
#5 Jonathan Stokke (DU) def. Patrick Chucri (OM) 7-6(6), 6-3
#6 Karim Alayli (OM) def. Peter Shults (DU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
DOUBLES
#1 King-Yani (DU) def. Hartman-Lindholm (OM) 8-5
#2 Walter-Zimmerman (DU) vs. Gard-Ciorascu (OM) 7-7, sus.
#3 Shults-Stokke (DU) def. Chucri-Alayli (OM) 8-4

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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