Unlikely as it would seem during a weekend celebrating superhuman canines, cats triumphed over dogs in both of Mississippi State’s matches against Kentucky on Friday afternoon. Women
After a brief rain shower upset fans by delaying the match an hour, Mississippi State’s lady netters could not manage an upset of their own as they lost 5-1 to the 23rd-ranked Wildcats Friday afternoon at the A.J. Tennis Centre.
Kentucky shot to an early lead as the 88th-ranked Sarah Woestmann and Alaina Trgovich grabbed respective straight set wins over MSU’s Renee Joseph and DeAndra Saddler. All other matches lasted three sets, with State claiming three middle sets to extend the match and mount a small comeback.
“We had a lot of comebacks,” head coach Tracy Lane said. “We didn’t capitalize on them and ended up missing a lot of opportunities.”
On court 1, State’s Martina Banikova’s first set lead ended in a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 loss to Megan Broderick before Kentucky clinched the match with Christine Johnston’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Radka Ferancova on court 4.
The last two points were split between the two teams. On court 6, Valeriya Makarycheva fought back from a set down against Whitney Spencer to spare State’s shutout blushes with a 6-7(9), 6-2, 7-5 victory. Elna de Villiers just failed to close out the day with a win, losing 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-5 after a grueling back-and-forth battle with UK’s Carolina Escamilla.
“It was the first match this semester that I got a little tired in the end,” de Villiers said. “I try to fight hard in every match, so it was a little disappointing to lose in this one.”
Men
Mississippi State’s 38th-ranked men’s tennis squad failed to avenge the women’s result, falling 4-3 to the Wildcats in Lexington, Ky.
The match began as close as it ended, with Kentucky just edging State to claim the doubles point.
State pair Ivan Bjelica and Philippe Frayssinoux lost 8-3 to Kentucky’s Bruno Agostinelli and Brad Cox before Ryan Farlow and Pjotrs Necajevs leveled matters with an 8-2 win over UK’s Will Beck and Shane Collins.
With the match’s first point up for grabs on court 3, UK’s Alex Lambropoulos and Marcus Sundh rallied from 6-3 down to claim an 8-6 victory over State’s Chris Doerr and Tanner Stump.
Doerr and Sundh met again in singles play, with the latter claiming a 6-0, 7-5 victory to put the Wildcats 2-0 ahead.
State pulled one back with the 50th-ranked Frayssinoux’s 7-6, 6-3 win over UK’s Cox before Farlow’s third set rally to defeat Beck 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 brought State level. It was as close as the Bulldogs would come, after Kentucky’s 48th-ranked Agostinelli held on to defeat State’s 37th-ranked Bjelica 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and Alex Lambropoulos clinched the win for Kentucky with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Stump.
After the match, head coach Per Nilsson lamented letting the game slip away.
“It takes something extra to win on the road in the SEC, and we just couldn’t finish when the opportunity presented itself,” Nilsson said. “It is disappointing to lose a match when it was in your hand.