NCAA Men's Tennis Regional

OXFORD, Miss. - It took the Ole Miss men's tennis team less than three hours to down Navy 4-1 in the first round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Regional Friday in front of about 300 fans at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center. The Rebels, who improved to 18-5, will meet the winner of the Virginia/South Alabama match Saturday at 11:00 a.m.

"We knew going in that Navy was a scrappy team," head coach Billy Chadwick said. "They have an agressive style of play and were very skillful in doubles play. Winning the doubles point was big. We had to fight back on court two to clinch the win and we carried the momentum into singles. Hopefully, it will carry over to tomorrow's finals."

Navy (18-8) appeared to be ready to play taking Ole Miss to the limit in doubles before the Rebels cruised in singles. Ole Miss won the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and 2 doubles. James Shortall and Martin Sjoqvist downed Mitchell Koch and Tim Crawmer 8-4 and then Anders Stenman and Vikrant Chadha held off Spencer Wilcox and Jim McHugh 9-7 to clinch the point.

The Rebels quickly went up 2-0 as freshman Martin Selin held Dan Stahlschmidt at love, winning 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5 singles. Kristofer Stahlberg gave Ole Miss a 3-0 lead dominating Grant Carona 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6 singles.

In Navy's only win on the day, Koch dominated 25th-ranked Shortall 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles to make it 3-1, but the other three matches weren't even close with Ole Miss winning all three first sets, and leading in the second on two courts. That is when Stenman took over and finished off McHugh 6-3, 6-1 at No. 4 singles to clinch the victory for the Rebels.

SINGLES #1 Mitchell Koch (USNA) def. James Shortall (OM) 6-3, 6-3 #2 Martin Sjoqvist (OM) def. Joe McCauley (USNA) 6-4, 5-1, OM leading #3 Anders Stenman (OM) def. Jim McHugh (USNA) 6-3, 6-1 #4 Vikrant Chadha (OM) def. Tim Crawmer (USNA) suspended 6-1, 4-4 OM leading #5 Martin Selin (OM) def. Dan Stahlschmidt (USNA) 6-0, 6-0 #6 Kristofer Stahlberg (OM) def. Grant Carona (USNA) 6-1, 6-1 DOUBLES #1 Shortall-Sjoqvist (OM) def. Koch-Crawmer (USNA) 8-4 #2 Stenman-Chadha (OM) def. Wilcox-McHugh (USNA) 9-7 #3 Selin-Stahlberg (OM) vs. McCauley-Stahlschmidt (USNA) suspended 7-6, Navy

SECOND MATCH FINAL SCORE

South Alabama 4 Virginia 2

The University of South Alabama men's tennis team upset No. 26 ranked Virginia 4-2 in the second match of the first round NCAA Men's Tennis Regional at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center this afternoon.

South Alabama won the doubles point and then won at Nos. 5 and 6 singles, while Virginia took the top two positions. The Jaguar's Christian Thall, playing up a position at No. 3 singles defeated Virginia's John Winter to clinch the match for South Alabama.

Ole Miss and South Alabama will be meeting for the second time in three years. The Rebels defeated the Jaguars 4-1 in the finals of the Blue/Gray Classic in 1997.

DOUBLES #1 Montgomery-Vahaly (UVA) def. McInerney-Raynal (USA) 8-5 #2 Mellin-Homedes (USA) def. Croker-Winter (UVA) 9-8(2) #3 Thall-Hesser (USA) def. Hunter-Yoo (UVA) 8-2

SINGLES #1 Brian Vahaly (UVA) def. Julian Raynal (USA) 6-4, 6-0, UVA #2 Huntley Montgomery (UVA) def. Paul McInerney (USA), 6-1, 6-1, UVA #3 John Winter (UVA) vs. Christian Thall (USA) 7-6(5), 7-5 USA #4 Hyon Yoo (UVA) vs. Zak Lahmar (USA) 7-6(2), 2-4, suspended #5 Tommy Croker (UVA def. Fredrik Mellin (USA) 6-1, 6-3, USA #6 Brian Hunter (UVA) vs. Carl Hesser (USA) 7-5, 6-3 USA

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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