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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Alabama State - NCAA First Round
No. 14 Rebels Shut Out Alabama State
5/8/2015 | Men's Tennis
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OXFORD, Miss. -- In NCAA first round action, the No.14 Ole Miss men's tennis team shut out Alabama State 4-0 to advance to the second round here Friday at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center. The Rebels will face Columbia in the second round Saturday at 1 p.m. for a berth in the Sweet Sixteen.
Columbia defeated Georgia Tech 4-1 in the first match of the day.
Friday marked the first match in almost three weeks for the Rebels, but once they got the rust off in doubles, they took the early 1-0 lead and then dominated in singles to improve to 11-1 at home and 18-8 on the season. Â
"Great win today by the guys," head coach Toby Hansson said. "We played a solid match, and we are looking forward to tomorrow. I am expecting a tough match, but it's going to be a lot of fun. We've prepared the whole season for this moment, and the guys are excited. I know we'll be ready. These guys enjoy playing in front of a big crowd, so we would love to see Rebel fans fill this place up tomorrow."
William Kallberg and Gustav Hansson are back together for the first time in over a month, and they played as if they had been playing together all this time, winning 8-1 at No. 2 doubles. In one of two new pairings for the Rebels, Nik Scholtz and Stefan Lindmark teamed up for an 8-5 win at No. 1 to clinch the point.
"We got off to a great start at No. 2 doubles," Hansson said. "We were struggling a little bit with the returns at two and three doubles, but I like what I see. They challenged us in doubles, but it was good for us. We will be better tomorrow in doubles."
In singles, the Rebels won all six first sets, and never looked back. Scholtz was on point winning 6-1, 6-1 against Alabama State's Takura Mlambo for his 22nd win in his last 23 home matches. Gustav showed why he was named second team All-SEC, shutting out ASU's Patrik Cvik 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles to make it 3-0 Rebels.
"It was our first match in a while," Gustav said of pairing back up with Kallberg. "We both returned well today. We've been working our returns a lot the last couple of weeks. In singles, I played really well, kept the balls in the court and didn't miss a lot. Columbia is good, so we know it will be a much tougher match. We've working hard for this and we'll be ready to go."
Not long after Hansson won his match, Ricardo Jorge finished off the Hornets' Jarred Thompson 6-0, 6-3 at No. 5 singles to clinch the victory.
"Even though we were the favorite, we still had to show it," Jorge said. "Every team who makes it to the NCAAs deserves to be here. After a slow start in doubles, we showed that we were ready to go in singles. I am excited for tomorrow's match against Columbia. We've been working hard all fall and this spring for this moment, and it should be a great battle."
"We picked it up in singles," Hansson said. "You could see they were determined out there and stayed focused. Nik played a very solid match, as did Gustav, and then Ricardo closed it out. It was a great day."
Tickets for the match are $6 for adults and $3 for college-aged and younger. Â
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Players Mentioned
