Men?s Tennis Defeats No. 44 Mississippi State, 4-2

MONTGOMERY, Ala. ? The University of Colorado men’s tennis team rallied and rebounded on the second day of competition at the 18-team Blue-Gray National Collegiate Tennis Classic taking a 4-2 victory over No. 44 Mississippi State, Friday at the Lagoon Park Tennis Center in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Buffaloes improve to 9-4 on the season and will close the tournament against Alabama, Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Despite losing the doubles point, CU rallied to win four singles positions to even their head-to-head series with the Bulldogs at one. The two schools last played at the 2004 Blue-Gray Tennis Classic with MSU winning, 4-0.

“A great performance from the guys in singles,” said CU head coach Sam Winterbotham. “We’ve struggled in doubles, but you could see the confidence coming out in singles and they weren’t going to be denied. Mississippi State is a very tough team and it was a battle.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the effort; if they continue to give that kind of effort, the year is going to be a great year.”

On Friday and trailing 1-0, the Buffs won the first set in five of the six singles matches. The Buffaloes tied the match at 1-1 when CU’s Eric Molnar upended MSU’s Ivan Bjelica at the No.1 position 6-0, 6-4. It was Molnar’s fifth win in his last six matches.

MSU went up 2-1 taking the No. 2 singles slot, however, the No. 38 ranked Buffaloes stormed back with Chad Tsuda winning in straight sets over Forent Girod by a score of 6-2, 7-5 at No. 5, evening the match at two points a piece.

Colorado inched closer to the victory when 111th-ranked Jan Zelezny beat Jose-Carlos Pinto 6-2, 6-0 on court to take a 3-2 lead. Zelezny won his third straight match.

Marek Dvorak ended the scoring defeating Ryan Farlow 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6 singles for his eighth victory in 10 outings.

The last match between MSU’s Philippe Frayssinoux and CU’s 96th-ranked Peter Bjork was suspended with Bjork leading 7-5, 3-2.

CU is 1-1 after two days at the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic.

No. 38 Colorado 4, No. 44 Mississippi State 2

CU (9-4), MSU (3-6)

March 17, Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic

1d) Bundalo/Molner (CU) vs. Bjelica/Pinto (MSU) 6-5, susp.

2d) Girod/Mouillon (MSU) def. Zelezny/Dvorak (CU) 8-2

3d) Farlow/Frayssinoux (MSU) def. Tsuda/Bjork (CU) 8-4

1s) Eric Molnar (CU) def. Ivan Bjelica (MSU) 6-0, 6-4

2s) Pierre Mouillon (MSU) def. Marko Bundalo (CU) 6-3, 6-3

3s) (96) Peter Bjork (CU) vs. Philippe Frayssinoux (MSU) 7-5, 3-2, suspended