Mississippi State’s 13th-ranked men’s tennis team notched its fourth-straight victory Friday afternoon, defeating Murray State 6-1 at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre on the MSU campus. The victory moved State’s record to 5-2 for 2002, as the Racers fell to 4-4. The match marked the first meeting between the schools in tennis since 1984 and saw the Bulldogs take a 6-4 lead in the overall series.
The Bulldogs drew a stiff challenge in doubles from the Racers for the first point of the day. After dropping an 8-5 decision at the top position, State claimed an 8-5 win at No. 3 from the team of Michael Hailey and Aymeric Henou. It was the first career dual match for Hailey and the duo rallied from a 5-4 deficit to win.
MSU’s tandem of Rene-Charles Combette and Max Fomine then broke in the last game of the set at No. 2 to win 8-6 and secure the 1-0 lead for the Bulldogs.
Murray State evened the match at 1-1 when Bulldog David Ruiz retired at the No. 1 spot due to soreness in his back. Racer Nikola Aracic had taken the first set 6-3.
MSU gained a 3-1 lead when Fomine and Henou closed out their matches at the lower two spots in succession. Fomine was a 6-0, 6-2 winner over Racer Mike Schmidbauer at the No. 6 spot, while the freshman Henou ousted Zakaria Bahri 6-2, 6-0 at No. 5.
Clinching the match for State was Jerome Le Belicard. The junior notched his fourth triumph in a row, beating Freddy Sundsten 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 2 position. The Bulldogs then finished off the last two matches within a 30-second period. Combette, ranked 59th nationally, won for the seventh time in nine matches (and fifth in a row), downing Racer Thiago Gondim 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3.
Sophomore Luiz Carvalho then won 7-5, 7-5 over Murray’s Alex Hoyem at No. 4, rallying from a break down in each set to do so.
“This was a good victory for our team,” MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. “Murray State challenged us in doubles, but we responded well to get the points when we needed them. Then we came out and played solidly in singles and fought hard to win a couple of matches we were down in early.”
State will now close out its current homestand in the coming weeks, entertaining Louisiana-Lafayette next Thursday, Feb. 21, and 28th-ranked Middle Tennessee on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
The Bulldogs will then open their 2002 Southeastern Conference slate during the first weekend of March on the road at No. 30 South Carolina and No. 31 Florida.