Two lost tiebreakers and many missed opportunities cost the No. 14 Bulldog men’s tennis team Sunday night in College Station, Texas. 
A win would have meant a spot in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Charlottesville, Va. in February, but it was not meant to be, as the No. 11 Texas A&M Aggies ousted Mississippi State in what could have been a huge win for a resurgent tennis program.
The loss drops State to 4-2, but head coach Per Nilsson said he understands the season is still young.
“We put ourselves in a position to win, we had two match points. We could have won,” Nilsson said.
The Bulldogs started off strong earning the one point in the doubles matches and staking a 2-0 lead after senior George Coupland’s 6-3, 6-1 win over Jackson Withrow.
Drawing the Aggies closer was 19th-ranked Alexis Klegoe, getting a quick 6-4, 6-2 win over MSU’s Artem IIyushin. Tying the match at 2-2 for the Aggies was John Lewis, as he edged out Zach White in a close two setter 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Then the drama began, as Bulldog and No. 45 Louis Cant won a hard-fought three-set match over Junior Ore.
The Belgium native gritted out a key match that looked to be the deal breaker at the time.
“My returns were very good. I got a break in the second set, I stayed on the baseline, then took it to the third set,” Cant said.
The second lost tiebreaker for the Bulldogs came in the second to last match of the night as Aggie Jeremy Efferding overcame a tough first set to defeat Malte Stropp 1-6, 6-0, 7-6 (6).
The final match of the night was between Mississippi State’s James Chaudry and Texas A&M’s Collin Hoover. Chaudry dropped the first set 6-3 but took the second in a tiebreaker before losing the third set 7-5, sealing the match for the Aggies.
This Bulldog team certainly has not been short on competition early in the season. Its first loss came at the hands of No. 3 Ohio State 6-1 on Jan. 22.
Expectations were high of this Bulldog squad that returned every important cog on a team who went 14-8 overall and an impressive 7-3 in conference play last season.
“We are similar to the team we had last year. Rough start, we got away because of talent a couple times so far this year,” Nilsson said.
Although there are many positives to be taken away from a strong 6-1 win over Princeton Saturday and a near road win at a top-15 program, any loss exposes weaknesses in a team, Coupland said.
“We all have our individual goals, and we have good team unity. We lost together as a team,” he said.
Nilsson also sees this game as an eye opener.
“We have to play more aggressive. We can’t sit back. We have to go out there with a ‘take it’ attitude,” he said.
Cant said he knows it is going to take more for this team to take it the next level and to a place many people believe it can reach.
“We have a really good team this year. We have to get back to hard practice,” Cant said.
Losses are always tough, especially with what was at stake, but losing now and refining those weaknesses could mean winning when the stakes are highest in May.
The Bulldogs host TCU Friday in Starkville at 2 p.m. before traveling to Jackson to face in-state rival Ole Miss Feb. 9.