The tennis teams continue to have trouble in SEC play this season. The men’s tennis team dropped a close 4-3 decision to No. 16 Arkansas Friday. The match was delayed for two hours because of rain.
Once on the court, the Razorbacks took an early 1-0 lead with two doubles wins. At the No. 3 court Taylor King and Colin Mascall defeated Ryan Farlow and Philippe Frayssinoux 8-3.
When No. 39 Blake Strode and Adrians Zguns put away Florent Girod and Pierre Mouillon 8-3, the other doubles match was suspended to get the singles underway.
The singles kicked off when Ivan Bjelica upset No. 13 Zguns 7-5, 6-3 on court one. The home crowd was in full force, behind Bjelica all the way. But the Razorbacks hopped back on top when Michael Jung fought back from a set down and cruised to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 win over Farlow.
The crowd bounced back in the match to help Mouillon upset No. 49 Roberts 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 on court two. With the match tied 2-2, the Razorbacks won the matches on courts four and three, in that order.
Strode, ranked just outside the top 100, won a three-set thriller over Girod 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. Shortly thereafter No. 74 Rohan Gajjar defeated Jose-Carlos Pinto in a long, close 7-5, 7-5 match.
Sunday the Bulldogs went to Baton Rouge, La., and came back without a win, losing every match en route to a 7-0 loss to the No. 19 LSU Tigers. The loss was the fourth straight and drops the Netmen to 1-7 in SEC play and to 4-10 overall.
MSU was against heavy competition, facing two doubles tandems ranked in the top 15 and one singles player in the top 25. As for individual stats, Mouillon stands at 10-4 in dual matches this season and 5-3 in SEC play. Bjelica is now at 4-4 in SEC competition.
Women
The Lady Bulldogs didn’t fare too well either. After both weekend matches the Lady Dawgs fell to 3-12 and 1-7 in SEC competition. Friday the Lady Dawgs went to Fayetteville to take on the No. 55 Arkansas, dropping a 6-1 decision. Arkansas jumped out to a 1-0 lead, winning the doubles.
The only tandem able of notching a win was Martina Banikova and Elna de Villiers, defeating Audrey Bordeleau 8-4 on court two.
Polina Kokoulina and Anastasia Kugakolova lost a close 8-6 decision to Karina Ledaja and Maryori Franco at the No. 1 spot.
Daniela Juskova and Renee Joseph lost 8-3 to Melissa Cornett and Ela Kaluder.
Arkansas came out hard and won five of the six singles matches to snap a five-match losing streak to the Lady Dawgs. The lone win came from de Villiers, winning 6-7(5), 0-3, retired over Melissa Cornett.
Sunday the Lady Dawgs came home to host the No. 57 LSU Lady Tigers, who whipped State 5-2.
The Lady Dawgs hopped on top early, winning the doubles point. Mixing it up a little bit, Banikova and de Villiers moved to the No. 1 spot and got an 8-6 win over Mykala Hedberg.
MSU clinched the point when Juskova and Kugakolova defeated Daysi Espinal and Lauren Seaman 8-5. Joseph and Kokoulina fell to Marina Chiarelli and Anastasiya Dubova 6-8.
When the singles got underway, LSU took no time tying the match. Dubova defeated Banikova 6-2, 6-4 at the No. 3 spot. At the No.1 spot, Kugakolova got back in the win column with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Hedberg. LSU (9-9, 1-7) won the remaining singles matches for their first conference win of the season.
The Lady Bulldogs get ready to go on the road to Athens in a battle of the Bulldogs with Georgia, whereas the men’s tennis team hosts Georgia on Friday to kick off Super Bulldog Weekend.