Men's Tennis Falls to No. 8 Ole Miss
3/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
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OXFORD, Miss. ?? The Alabama tennis team lost to No. 8 Ole Miss Friday afternoon in the first of two road matches this weekend. The Rebels swept Alabama 7-0, winning their 29th consecutive regular-season home match.
Tide players hung tough in several matches but were never able to gain momentum. Robbye Poole clinched the win at No. 5 singles for Ole Miss with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Dan Buikema, ending Buikema’s three-match winning streak.
“Despite the outcome, we gave them a good effort,” Alabama head coach Billy Pate said. “I didn’t think we played real well in doubles but thought that we came out in singles with a lot of energy. We had some chances but every time we faced a critical point Ole Miss stepped up and kept the momentum in their favor. They are a mature and experienced team and we have to do a better job of converting when we play a quality team.”
At No. 3 singles Billy Mertz got off to a great start. Mertz took an early lead over Bram ten Berge and claimed the opening set, 6-1. However, ten Berge fought back to even the match at one set apiece with a 6-3 win in the second. Mertz wasn’t able to comeback and Berge won the third set 6-2 to win the match.
Ole Miss claimed the doubles point to get ahead of Alabama early, winning 8-3 at No. 1 and 8-4 at No. 2. The Tide’ Mertz and Javier Bes, however, played well at No. 3 and picked up their sixth win of the dual.
The loss drops Alabama to 4-5 overall, 1-2 in the SEC. Alabama will attempt to get back to .500 on Sunday when it travels to Starkville, Miss. to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
No. 8 Ole Miss 7, No. 50 Alabama 0
Singles
Erling Tveit (UM) d. Joseph Jung (UA), 6-1, 6-2
Eric Claesson (UM) d. Javier Bes (UA), 6-3, 6-2
Bram ten Berge (UM) d. Billy Mertz (UA), 1-6, 6-3, 6-2
Juan Pablo Di Cesare (UM) d. Mathieu Thibaudeau (UA), 6-2, 6-4
Robbye Poole (UM) d. Dan Buikema (UA), 7-5, 6-3
Jakob Klaeson (UM) d. Sammy Struyf (UA), 6-4, 7-6
Doubles
Tveit/Claesson (UM) d. Jung/Thibaudeau (UA), 8-3
ten Berge/Di Cesare (UM) d. Struyf/Felsenthal (UA), 8-4
Mertz/Bes (UA) d. Poole/Klaeson (UM), 7-6
