Baylor
Mississippi St
Men's Tennis Drops Second Straight Match
1/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 27, 2001
STARKVILLE, Miss. - The No. 17-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs avenged their 2000 NCAA Tournament second round loss to Baylor by beating the No. 15 Bears in Starkville on Saturday, 4-3.
The Bulldogs (2-0) opened by taking the doubles point. Mississippi State won the first match of the day at the No. 2 doubles spot. The Bears (0-2) evened things up with a win at the No. 1 spot, as the fourth-ranked team of Reiner Neurohr and Mark Williams beat the No. 16 team of Chris McDonald and Mathieu Soto, 8-5.
At the No. 3 position, MSU's team of Romain Ambert and Luiz Carvallo took a 7-3 lead over Csongor Bibza and Cory Ross. The Bears won the next four points to tie the score at 7-7, but Ambert and Carvallo bounced back to win the match 9-7 and take the doubles point for the Bulldogs.
Mississippi State won three of the first four singles matches, as well, clinching the match at 4-1. Baylor won the final two singles matches with the team's outcome already decided.
Baylor's wins came from Bibza, Marin and Ross. Bibza took the win at the No. 1 spot, coming from behind to beat 24th-ranked Rene-Charles Combette in three sets. Marin, playing in his first collegiate match, beat Max Fomine at the No. 5 spot in three sets, and Ross took the No. 6 spot for the second consecutive match.
The loss makes this the first season since 1992 that the Bears have begun the spring 0-2. In 2000, Baylor lost its first match but won the next six in a row.
Baylor now returns to Waco, where the Bears will host Lamar in their home opener. The match is scheduled for Jan. 31 at 2 p.m. at the Streich Tennis Courts.
Saturday, Jan. 27
#17 Mississippi State (2-0) def. #15 Baylor (0-2), 4-3
No. 1 #4 Neurohr/Williams, BU, def. #16 McDonald/Soto, MSU, 8-5
No. 2 Combette/Le Belicard, MSU, def. Marin/O'Connor, BU, 8-4
No. 3 Ambert/Carvalho, MSU, def. Bibza/Ross, BU, 9-7
No. 1 Csongor Bibza, BU, def. #24 Rene-Charles Combette, MSU, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
No. 2 #6 Romain Ambert, MSU, def. #91 Reiner Neurohr, BU, 6-0, 6-1
No. 3 Jerome Le Belicard, MSU, def. #92 Mark Williams, BU, 7-5, 6-2
No. 4 David Ruiz, MSU, def. Sean O'Connor, BU, 6-0, 6-0
No. 5 Matias Marin, BU, def. Max Fomine, MSU, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-0
No. 6 Cory Ross, BU, def. Luiz Carvalho, MSU, 6-2, 6-4
