Dorothy could not have said it beter. There was no place like home as the 33rd ranked Mississippi State men’s tennis team and the 75th ranked Lady Netters defeated the University of Memphis Tigers and University of New Orleans Privateers, respectively, over the weekend.
Due to rain, both men’s and women’s contests were moved from outdoors at the A.J. Pitts Centre to indoors to McCarthy Gymnasium. The Bulldogs improve to 5-2 overall and 4-0 at home, while the Lady Netters improve to 4-0 with their fourth consecutive shutout.
In the men’s match on Saturday afternoon, the Tigers took the first point by winning all three double matches.
Memphis sssistant coach Lee Walker said “This is our fifth match against top ranked teams. We play hard but we lack the experience to pull out a victory over these teams.”
The inexperience Walker mentioned was evident as the Bulldogs rolled off five consecutive points against Memphis.
At the No. 2 position, freshman Philippe Frayssinoux led the surge, defeating James Spence 1-6,6-1,7-5.
“He [Spence] played very good early, but it was a strange match that saw some good points and bad points for both of us,” Frayssinoux said. “The team’s support helped me to pull through the match.”
At the No. 4 position, junior Florent Girod remained undefeated on the season (6-0) by defeating Mark Finnegan 6-3,6-2.
Also, 95th ranked Jose-Carlos Pinto defeated Alex Jago at the No. 3 position 7-6(6), 5-7,6-4.
“Memphis can hurt anybody but we survived a real scare,” MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. “All matches were close but fortunately we came out with a win today.”
With a week off the Bulldogs will host 45th ranked Middle Tennessee Sunday at 1 p.m. before opening SEC play.
The Lady Netters captured the first point of the match Sunday afternoon when the 46th ranked pair of Zsuzsanna Fodor and Anastasia Kugakolova shut out the Privateers’ Lucie Mazinova and Laetitia Zembski 8-0 at the No. 1 position.
In singles, sophomore and 28th ranked Fodor breezed to victory defeating Zembski 6-1,6-1 at the No. 1 position. Fodor improved her singles season record to 24-4, which ties her for seventh place for most victories in a season at MSU.
“I do not think about the singles record,” Fodor said, “as long as the team has more points than the opposition, I’m happy.”
Sophomore Tarryn Rudman, who defeated Angela Dangond 6-0, 6-2, said “The team is confident because we play hard, practice hard and we enjoy being out there.”
With the victory lady netters head coach Tracy Lane is now two victories shy of becoming MSU’s all-time leader in coaching wins.
“I knew coming to MSU and working with Tracy would be a first class opportunity,” Lady Netters first year assistant coach Rene’ Vidal said. “She’s a great coach as well as a first class person. I knew it would be a win-win situation to come here. I look forward to seeing our program rise to the next level.”
The team travels to Mobile, Ala. to take on the 43rd ranked South Alabama Jaguars on Thursday at 11 a.m.