A one-sided Sunday match capped a long weekend for the Mississippi State men’s tennis team as the Bulldogs fell to South Carolina and Florida.
Friday, the No. 55 Bulldogs (5-10, 1-5 SEC) fell 4-2 to the No. 16 Gamecocks (15-4, 3-3 SEC) in a match moved indoors due to inclement weather. Because of the weather, doubles play was also suspended once USC had clinched that point and sophomore Bulldog Tanner Stump was unable to finish his No. 6 singles match with USC’s Ivan Cressoni. South Carolina led in both matches.
USC took the first two points of the match with the doubles point and Jamie Cuellar’s straight set victory over Louis Cant at the No. 3 singles position.
MSU senior Ryan Farlow gave the Bulldogs hope for the upset with a straight-set win over USC’s No. 50 nationally ranked Diego Cubas. Cubas is 20-8 this year in singles with each of his other seven loses coming to players ranked in the top 20 nationally.
On court two, MSU freshman Artem Ilyushin rallied to force a tiebreaker in the second set but ultimately fell to USC’s No. 115 Pedro Campos. Bulldog Antonio Lastre picked up a three-set win after a tiebreaker in the final set to cut the home side’s lead to 3-2. In the end Johannes Pulsfort gave USC the victory after claiming four of the last five games over Bulldog junior Chris Doerr on court five.
“It was tough to see our guys work hard to come from behind and then fall short,” Mississippi State head coach Per Nilsson said. “[Farlow’s] and [Lastre’s] wins were huge for us.”
The Gamecocks’ win saw the team remain undefeated for the season in Columbia.
Sunday, Florida head coach former MSU head coach Andy Jackson returned to Starkville to face off against Nilsson, one of his former players. The No. 7 Florida Gators (12-6, 3-3 SEC) showed their class with a 6-1 rout of the home Bulldogs. Of the six singles matches, only Ilyushin’s win on court two went to the third set for the Bulldogs.
“[Ilyushin] played way above what was expected of him today,” Nilsson said. “He is not performing like a freshman, but we need the other guys to feed off his play and be better than they are right now.”
MSU was swept in doubles with the closest match seeing Florida’s Antoine Benneteau and Joey Berkhardt beat Doerr and Stump 8-4.
“For his first time this year, we were not in the match,” Nilsson said. “We got beat badly in doubles. It didn’t look good from there.”
Florida rushed to a 5-0 lead after straight-set wins on four courts with MSU averaging only two wins per set in those matches.
Ironically, MSU’s lone point came on court two as Ilyushin beat No. 14 Alex Lacroix. Ilyushin picked up his first SEC win and first win over a ranked opponent while filling in for injured freshman Daniel Sanchez.
In the super tiebreaker for the third set and the match, Ilyushin took control of his match. Lacroix and Ilyushin stood tied at 4-4 when Lacroix sent a lob seemingly past Ilyushin. Ilyushin recovered to counter and slammed the lob past Lacroix, ultimately sealing the match’s fate.
“After it, I was jumping up to the fans,” Ilyushin said of the shot. “It was a really important point. It fires you up. I was really close in the matches against Georgia and Tennessee. I said before that today I am going to go out and play my best and I don’t think the guy can beat me.”
Following the shot, Lacroix responded with two double faults in a row.
“The fans were great,” Ilyushin said. “I think they got in his head and caused two double faults. We play better with fans. They are crazy.”
Only a tiebreaker loss remained for the Bulldogs as UF’s Johnny Hamui took straight sets from MSU’s Doerr.
“To be fair, we made them look very good today,” Doerr said of his team’s performance. “We were intimidated by playing the No. 7 team in the country. We have dealt with bigger teams this year. A couple guys were not awake today, it brings the team down.”
Jackson spent 13 years at MSU collecting two SEC titles. At Florida, he has matched that total.
“I have yet to beat him,” Nilsson said. “Now, we feel that we have played the toughest part of the SEC. We are done with Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.”