Mississippi  State University put on arguably the most impressive display of the season over the weekend, handing conference-leading No. 6 Georgia its first SEC loss and defeating South Carolina two days later. The two wins bring its overall record to 17-5,  as well as 8-2 within the SEC. MSU currently sits at the third spot in the conference standings, with two games left before the start of the SEC Tournament.
The team has chosen the right time to start peaking, and Head Coach Matt Roberts pinpointed the change within the psyche of his players as the reason for the Bulldogs’ sustained success of late. 
“Team. Being good teammates and trying to push each other every day in practice. Accountability and not wanting to play together by yourself,” he said. “We’ve got a young team, and guys at the beginning of the year didn’t understand that. They weren’t used to that because tennis is such an individual sport, so now they’re starting to see that if you do things for your teammate, good things will happen.”       
Robert’s words rang true just minutes later when the Bulldog’s number one Florian Lakat motioned to his teammate Mate Cutura to join him in answering questions following the win against Georgia on Friday night. The sense of accomplishment and joy was unmistakable by Lakat. 
“Today I felt like every guy on the court or in the stands was into it,”  Lakat said. “Everyone fought super hard, and it’s just awesome. Everyone deserves it. We’ve been all putting in the work. We were real close against Texas A&M, but this time we took it, so it’s great.”     
In general, the team has a  good vibe, and it is obvious it is approaching each match like it is the best team on the court. 
“We all came out ready,” Cutura said. “Nobody looked at Georgia like they are so much better than us and we came out and battled with them.”   
The match against Georgia started out well, as it could have scripted it for the Bulldogs. The doubles team of Cutura and Tassilo Schmid was able to get the best of the Georgia team of Eric Diaz and Nathan Pasha, with the final line reading 6-4 in favor of Mississippi State. 
Not long after, the Bulldog team of Julian Cash and Lakat would take down the No. 1 doubles pair in the country, Austin Smith and Ben Wagland, by winning the last three points of the match, making the final score 6-4. This secured the doubles point for Mississippi State, giving it the early 1-0 advantage. 
Matters would continue to fall in favor of the Bulldogs, when Rishab Agarwal defeated his opponent in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, making it a 2-0 scoreline.
It would not take Georgia long to answer, as Wayne Montgomery would secure his team’s first point of the match, besting Juan Cruz Estevarena in straight sets. Mississippi State would respond with Cutura, who continued his unbeaten run within SEC play by pulling out a nail bitter against No. 18 Pasha in an epic three-set match 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. 
With the score at 3-1, the next two matches would end almost simultaneously. First, Schmid would fall in straight sets to Wagland on court four 3-6, 6-7(4), giving Georgia some much-needed life support. However, Lakat would seal it for the Bulldogs on a moments notice, when he would serve for the match on court one and ultimately gain victory over Smith with the final score of 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. 
The 4-2 win over Georgia, undoubtedly their best of the season, marks the first time since 1996 the Bulldogs have defeated Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia in the same season.           
“That was an amazing performance by our guys, and I cannot say enough about how much each one of them fought,” Roberts said. “We knew going in how good Georgia is, but we also knew we could compete on that level. We brought a lot of energy in here today and our guys capitalized on it.”
Sunday’s match against South Carolina did not act as a let down for MSU, which came out ready to go during its doubles matches. 
The MSU team of Estevarena and Robin Haden cruised to a  6-2 victory over Andrew Adams and Andrew Schafer. Following this, Cutura and Schmid picked up their second doubles win of the weekend by defeating their opponents Thomas Mayronne and Sam Swank 6-4. This marked the 17th time this season the Bulldogs picked up the doubles point. 
The singles matches went just as smoothly. Freshman Cash got the quick victory in straight sets on court six 6-2, 6-2. Soon after, Schmid fell to Thiago Pinheiro in straight sets 1-6, 1-6, giving the Gamecocks its first point of the day and making the score stand at 2-1. 
Agarwal and Cutura  extended their long victory streaks in singles play, as the two picked up the last two points for the Bulldogs to win the match 4-1. Both  now currently ride eight-game match winning streaks and Cutura now leads the SEC with an 8-0 record in league play. 
The Bulldogs have won five straight matches and 10 out of their last 12, which has given their head coach a lot of optimism about what this team could achieve by season’s end. 
“Moving forward, we’re really excited about the last two matches of the season,” Roberts said. “We have tough contests in Vanderbilt and LSU, plus postseason play, but we’re excited to see what we can do. I’m proud of the guys for how they have fought so far this year and cannot wait to see what we do from here on out.”
The Bulldogs are next in action on Friday, when they travel to Vanderbilt at 5 p.m. Afterwards, they will return home next Sunday to take on LSU for senior day at the A.J Pitts Tennis Centre at 1 p.m.