A tough weekend for the Mississippi State men’s (4-4, 0-2 SEC) tennis team saw it drop matches to Tennessee and Georgia.
Friday, Tennessee (8-3, 1-1 SEC) rallied past the men’s team after dropping the opening doubles point, marking the first time this season in an MSU match that the winner of the doubles point did not also win the match.
UT’s No. 10 singles player John-Patrick Smith evened the match following a victory over senior Ryan Farlow on court one. Junior Chris Doerr gave MSU the lead with a straight-set singles win over UT’s Christopher Williams on court six. The Volunteers then evened the match again with a win on court three.
The match then likely hung on the contest between MSU’s Louis Cant and UT’s Matt Brewer. Both sets went to tiebreakers and were won by Brewer.
Tennessee then picked up three set wins in the remaining matches to win 5-2.
“I think we are ready [for the SEC season] but we have to play smart,” sophomore Antonio Lastre said. “I think we should have beaten Tennessee. It was so close, we were losing sets 7-6.”
On Sunday, two-time defending national champion Georgia (12-2, 1-1 SEC) came to Starkville. The visiting Bulldogs started strong, sweeping doubles and winning the first set in each singles match.
UGA’s Drake Bernstein and Javier Garrapiz gave the MSU doubles team of Lastre and Daniel Sanchez the first loss of the season. It was also the first time MSU had dropped the doubles point since losing to Ole Miss on Feb. 5.
Despite the slow start, MSU would rally in three singles matches to force third sets.
Doerr won by claiming seven of the last eight games in his match with junior Christian Vituli. Georgia’s Bernstein then forfeited his match against Lastre, due to crowd noise, to finish 5-2.
“I think [Bernstein] deserved it a little,” Doerr said. “Georgia really fueled the crowd all day. He kept stuff going, but [Lastre] really deserved to win that on the court.”
Head coach Per Nilsson said he felt his team had a good chance to win in both matches.
Nilsson has seen rowdy crowds before at MSU when he played for the Bulldogs during the most successful era in program history from 1991-94 which included two trips to the NCAA Final Four.
“This is what it was like when I was here as a player. I am glad that it is coming back,” Nilsson said. “There has not been a home advantage here for a long time. Teams are expecting a relaxed atmosphere. Normally you go to a tennis match and cannot say anything, but that’s not how it is in college tennis.”