Men's Tennis Advances to NCAA Second Round
Jun 21, 1999 | Men's Tennis
May 14, 1999
BATON ROUGE, La. - - Tulane's Chris Ortner held off Southwestern Louisiana's Michael Jordan in the deciding match at No. 4 singles, as the Green Wave claimed a 4-3 victory over the Ragin' Cajuns on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at LSU's Robinson Tennis Stadium.
With the dual-match score tied at 3-3, Ortner took the first set, 7-5, to give Tulane the advantage. In the second frame, Ortner led 5-4, but Jordan fought back to claim a 6-5 advantage before suffering from cramps in his right wrist. Ortner leveled the scores at 6-6 and claimed a 7-1 win in the tie-break, giving Tulane the dual-match win with his 7-5, 7-6 (1) victory.
Friday's contest marked the third meeting of the season between Tulane and USL, with the Green Wave taking all three. With the win, Tulane (19-7) advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and will next face either host LSU or Alcorn State at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
"I'm very happy to get away with a win," Tulane head coach Robert Klein said. "All three of our matches with USL were close this year. It says a lot for them to come out here after having lost a couple of close matches to us earlier this year and have it come down to the wire again."
The match was a see-saw affair that saw USL (12-9) rally to tie the game three different times. The Green Wave claimed the doubles point with wins at the Nos. 1 and 3 spots. Ortner and Derya Rose teamed to give Tulane an 8-0 win at the No. 3 position, while Robert Samuelsson and Ronald Kloppert clinched the doubles point with an 8-6 win at No. 1.
However, USL rallied to even the score at 1-1, as Eduardo Gordilho claimed a 6-4, 6-1 win over Dennis Lundberg at the No. 2 spot. The Green Wave retook the lead with Jon Monk's 6-1, 6-2 win over USL's Carlos Himpler at the No. 6 position.
Bruno Puzzi leveled the score at 2-2 for the Ragin' Cajuns, posting a 7-6 (2), 6-1 win over Tulane's Ronald Kloppert at the No. 3 position. All-American Robert Samuelsson put the Green Wave a point clear, taking a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win over Rafael Fontes at No. 1. USL tied the game at 3-3 with Bernard Kaczorowski's 7-5, 6-4 win over Mikko Viljanen at the No. 5 spot, forcing the deciding match between Ortner and Jordan at No. 4.
