The University of Mississippi Athletics
Men's Tennis Downs Florida, 4-3
6/21/1999 | Baseball
March 19, 1999
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss men's tennis team swept the doubles, and that was the difference, as they went on to defeat the Florida Gators 4-3, in a battle for first place in the SEC, Friday afternoon at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center. The Rebels improve to 11-3 overall, 4-1 in the SEC.
Ole Miss grabbed the early lead by taking all three doubles matches. Vikrant Chadha and Anders Stenman defeated Justin O'Neal and Alex Hur 8-6 at No. 2 doubles and then Martin Selin and Kristofer Stahlberg came back to beat Dylan Mann and Trey Adcock 8-6 at No. 3 doubles to clinch the point. James Shortall and Martin Sjoqvist won in a tiebreaker 9-8(6) over Nathan Overholser and Jeff Morrison to improve to 14-2 at No. 1 doubles.
Florida evened the match at 1-1 when Amr El Sawaf downed Ole Miss' Stenman 6-1, 6-2 at No. 4 singles. The Gators took a 2-1 lead as ninth-ranked Morrison defeated 22nd-ranked Shortall 6-4, 6-4 at the top spot.
The Rebels' Stahlberg tied the match (2-2) by dominating Will Brown 6-1, 6-3 at No. 6 singles. Stahlberg has been a rock for the Rebels at the the No. 6 position, where he has only lost two dual matches all season.
The Gators took a 3-2 advantage after O'Neal handed Chadha a 6-4, 7-6(2) loss at No. 3 singles, but the Rebels countered with a win at No. 5, as Selin defeated Mann 6-0, 4-6, 6-2. That left Sjoqvist on the court playing Overholser at No. 2 singles, for the win.
Sjoqvist cruised in the first set 6-2, but Overholser took the second set 6-4. With the match knotted at 5-5 in the third, Sjoqvist broke to go up 6-5 and held serve to clinch the victory for the Rebels.
"We did a very good job of competing in this match," head coach Billy Chadwick said. "We knew it was going to be close. This was a total team victory and I thought we played well at all three doubles' positions. I am especially proud of Martin Sjoqvist because he has the most experience on the team and he took advantage of that in the last two games."
The Rebels will step out of conference play Sunday, to host South Florida at 1:00 p.m. at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center.#6 OLE MISS 4#t17 Florida 3SINGLES
#1 Jeff Morrison (UF) def. James Shortall (OM) 6-4, 6-4#2 Martin Sjoqvist (OM) def. Nathan Overholser (UF) 6-2, 4-6, 7-5#3 Justin O'Neal (UF) def. Vikrant Chadha (OM) 6-4, 7-6(2)#4 Amr El Sawaf (UF) def. Anders Stenman (OM) 6-1, 6-2#5 Martin Selin (OM) def. Dylan Mann (UF) 6-0, 4-6, 6-2#6 Kristofer Stahlberg (OM) def. Will Brown (UF) 6-1, 6-3DOUBLES
#1 Shortall-Sjoqvist (OM) def. Overholser-Morrison (UF) 9-8(6)#2 Chadha-Stenman (OM) def. O'Neal-Alex Hur (UF) 8-6#3 Selin-Stahlberg (OM) def. Mann-Trey Adcock (UF) 8-6