Following one-sided losses to Kentucky on Sunday, the chances of an NCAA tournament birth appear to lie in making an SEC tournament run for both the MSU men’s and women’s tennis teams.
The Mississippi State women’s team (9-7, 0-7 SEC) fell 7-0 to 20th-ranked Kentucky (12-6, 3-5 SEC) on the road. Six of MSU’s conference losses have been to teams ranked in the top 20.
Bulldog seniors Martina Banikova and Elna de Villiers won their fourth straight doubles match on court one, their longest winning streak this season. The Bulldogs then dropped the next two doubles matches to lose the first point of the match.
Kentucky played strongly after the Banikova/de Villiers win. Each singles match ended as straight set Blue and White wins; no singles match went to a tiebreaker.
Friday, the women’s team fell 6-1 to a hot Vanderbilt (8-5, 4-2 SEC) team which has won three straight SEC matches.
Head coach Geoff Macdonald has led Vanderbilt to 16 straight wins over the Bulldogs.
“I was pleased with the way our team competed today,” Macdonald said. “Any time you can pick up a win in conference is big and we beat a good team today in Mississippi State.”
After gifting the Commodores the doubles points with identical 8-3 losses, the Bulldogs evened the match with a straight set win for junior Radka Ferancova where she did not drop a match before Vandy’s Kelly Ulery retired. The rest of the day would be tough for the Bulldogs, dropping five straight singles matches.
The No. 60 men’s tennis team (5-11, 1-7 SEC) struggled to score Sunday as it fell to the visiting No. 13 Kentucky Wildcats (14-6, 4-4 SEC) 4-0. The Wildcats’ win snaps a two-match losing streak for UK and extends MSU’s losing streak to eight matches.
Mississippi State head coach Per Nilsson said his team wasn’t healthy for the match.
“Kentucky played well and won the match and there is no excuse but we need to take some time to get healthy,” Nilsson said. “We are going to take the next couple days off to let our bodies heal so we can be healthy and ready to play at Arkansas and LSU next weekend.”
MSU has struggled with injuries late in the season, which has exposed the lack of experience in the young MSU squad.
With the threat of severe weather, the match was to end once one side had picked up the necessary four points to clinch the victory. That move likely cost MSU senior Ryan Farlow a victory over the nation’s No. 5 player, Bruno Agostinelli. Farlow’s first set win was the lone set win for the Bulldogs.
The match was the shortest of the SEC season for the Bulldogs, finishing in just under two hours.
Friday, the Bulldogs found themselves in a 3-0 hole against No. 53 Vanderbilt (5-13, 1-7 SEC) before rallying to tie the match, but lose 4-3.
Vanderbilt head coach Ian Duvenhage said he was happy to pick up the win, which snapped a 10-match losing streak for the Commodores.
“It was good for us to get a win,” he said. “We’ve come close so many times and have been going through a rough patch here.”
Vanderbilt had not won in Starkville since 2003.
After dropping the doubles point, MSU’s singles wins came from courts one, two and three, marking the first time this conference season the Bulldogs have won the top three singles positions.
The clinching point came from Commodore Charlie Jones over Tanner Stump at the sixth position. Jones had only won one singles match in his career before Sunday, a similar match-clinching point at Boise State.