Two Ole Miss Doubles Teams Reach NCAA Elite Eight

TULSA, Okla. The Ole Miss men’s tennis team will make up a quarter of the Elite Eight in doubles at the NCAA Championships Saturday, as both teams advanced with wins on Friday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

Fourth-seeded Erling Tveit and Jonas Berg fought off the Illinois team of Billy Heiser and Ryan Rowe in three sets to advance. In the first set Tveit and Berg broke at 4-3 and served out for the first set (6-3). The Illini duo took the second set 6-2 to level the match. They served for the match at 5-3 in the third, but Tveit and Berg broke back and went on to win it 7-5 to improve to 29-9 overall.

“We played a great team,” Berg said. “Once again we got off to a great start, and once again we lost the second set. The third set was very tough, very even. They got up 5-3, serving for the match. We just hung in there and we got the break back and then pulled it through. It was a good win.”

“It was a hard fought match out there,” Tveit agreed. “We started off early and got broke in the first game. We played a really good second game and got right back in the match. We played pretty well in the first set. When you’re playing (two of three) sets it’s kind of hard to keep it up the whole time when you’re used to playing to eight. We had one bad service game, had a few chances in our return game and didn’t get it. In the third set, we got down 5-3, but we played really well from then on. It’s nice to be a college player for (at least) one more day.”

Tveit and Berg will meet North Carolina’s Taylor Fogleman and Chris Kearney for the third time this season, Saturday at 1 p.m. The Reb duo, ranked No. 5 in the nation, is 2-0 against the sixth-ranked Tar Heel pair, recently posting an 8-4 win against them in the Rebels’ 4-2 victory against North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen.

This marks the second year in a row for Tveit to be in the quarterfinals of doubles, advancing that far last year, with former All-American Eric Claesson.

Matthias Wellermann and Bram ten Berge, ranked No.21 in the nation, joined their teammates in the quarterfinals, as they knocked out the No. 3 seeded team of Carl Sundberg and Daniel Vallverdu (Miami) 6-3, 7-6(7).

In the first set, Wellermann and ten Berge broke to go up 5-3 and served out. The second set saw both teams gain two breaks each, ultimately going to a tiebreaker. Ole Miss led the breaker 4-2, but Miami answered, winning three straight points to take a 5-4 lead.

Wellermann and ten Berge faced two set points before tying it at 7-7. They won the next two to clinch the victory and improve to 25-9 overall. They will face Steven Forman and Cory Parr (5-8) of Wake Forest in the quarterfinals Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Earlier in the day, Tveit lost his third round singles match to the nation’s top player, Somdev Devvarman, 6-3, 6-1.

Live video and scoring of both quarterfinal matches can be seen by going to www.OleMissSports.com and clicking on the link in the upcoming events box.

NCAA INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS Tulsa, Okla.

Singles

Round of 16 -- Somdev Devvarman (UVA) def. Erling Tveit (OM) 6-3, 6-1.

Doubles

Round of 16 -- Erling Tveit/Jonas Berg (OM) def. Billy Heiser/Ryan Rowe (ILL) 6-3, 2-6, 7-5; Matthias Wellermann/Bram ten Berge (OM) def. Carl Sundberg/Daniel Vallverdu (UM) 6-3, 7-6(7).

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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