Ole Miss No. 5 In Latest Rankings

Feb. 9, 2000

OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss men's tennis team moved up one spot to No. 5 in the latest WingspanBank.com Tennis rankings released Wednesday. It marks the sixth year for the Rebels to be ranked in the nation's top five.

LSU took over the No.1 spot after UCLA lost to Pepperdine last week. Stanford, Duke, Florida, Ole Miss, Georgia, SMU, Pepperdine, UCLA and VCU round out the top 10. The SEC has four teams ranked in the top 10, seven in the top 15 and nine in the top 25.

The Rebels (1-0) are preparing to face No. 13 Mississippi State in the River Hills Mississippi Cup Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at River Hills Tennis Club in Jackson. Mississippi State won the first cup 4-2 and then won it again last year in exciting fashion as the match came down to the last court. The Bulldog's David Ruiz pulled out a win against Ole Miss' Vikrant Chadha to clinch a 4-3 victory.

Ole Miss head coach Billy Chadwick likes his teams' chances to earn their first Mississippi Cup with five of the top six back from last year's NCAA Final Four team.

"Over the last several years the two teams have battled right to the end," Chadwick said. We expect this match to be no different. All three of our matches against them last year were close, with us winning in the regular season SEC meeting and in the NCAA round of 16.

"We are expecting a huge crowd and hopefully when it's over, we will be bringing the cup home to Oxford," Chadwick added.

The Rebels defeated Memphis 6-1 in their season-opener, Tuesday. They won the doubles point and five of the six singles matches for the win. Freshman Alexander Hartman leads the team with a 21-6 overall record.

State comes in to the match with a 1-0 record after downing Southern Mississippi 7-0. The Bulldogs are led by seventh-ranked Marco Baron.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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