For Elna de Villiers, Saturday’s match was nothing new.
The Mississippi State senior found herself battling fatigue, cramps and Troy sophomore Mirte de Bakker to clinch a victory for her team in the day’s final match, long after the rest of the day’s action was over, just like she did two years ago against the same team.
“Today I was confident because I had done it before,” de Villiers said. “I knew I could do it again.”
The win moved the Lady Bulldogs to 4-0 for the second straight year and only the eighth time in program history. It would be an afternoon of comebacks for the Maroon and White with de Villiers rallying the team to win with a strong game in singles and doubles.
“I felt like we were coming from behind the entire match,” MSU head coach Tracy Lane said. “I take my hat off to the girls we are just fighting really hard on every point.”
After falling behind 3-2 in the decisive final set, de Villiers had to have her leg rewrapped due to the pain. When they resumed play, she appeared to catch the second wind she needed to mount a comeback.
“I think that when the trainer came on to wrap me I got my focus back,” de Villiers said of the end of the match. “I was thinking how I should be playing to win this match.”
The match started tough for the Bulldogs as the No. 1 doubles team of Natalia Mayuk and Olesya Tsigvintseva dropped their first match of the season to the Trojan tandem of Rawia Elsisi and Leonie Guijt.
Bulldogs Radka Ferancova and Daniela Juskova earned their doubles win on court three, allowing the senior pair of Martina Banikova and de Villiers to capture the doubles point for the Bulldogs.
Banikova, the team’s usual No. 1 singles player, could not assume her role at the top of the line up due to illness, and Tsigvintseva was thrust onto court one in only her fourth match with the team. Each Bulldog had to play a position higher than normal.
“That changed things for us a little bit,” Lane said. “We just faced adversity really well.”
Lady Bulldog Valeriya Makarycheva won in straight sets for MSU. Juskova fell in a match of momentum swings, 6-1, 0-6, 6-4. Following the straight set losses by Tsigvintseva and Mayuk, MSU needed wins from the middle of the line up for the win.
Confidently, Ferancova won in straight sets, tying the match 3-3 and de Villiers again came through for MSU.
“I knew I had a better chance to win the match.” Ferancova said. “I have had a pretty good season, I told coach that I can beat her.”
The Lady Bulldogs will go for their fifth win of the year Friday against Tulane in New Orleans.