After dropping three of four matches in a two-week road trip earlier this month, the No. 22 Mississippi State University men’s tennis team swept a three-match home stand last weekend and improved to 11-0 at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
The Bulldogs kicked off the weekend with a 4-2 win against LSU (10-9, 1-6) Friday afternoon. 
After dropping the opening doubles point, the Bulldogs took four of five singles matches, including sophomore Jordan Angus’s 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 match-clinching victory against LSU’s Andrew Korinek.
Angus said he leaned on his teammates’ encouragement to earn the win for the team.
“It was a long day, but we had fun. We were loud, we came out and we just wanted to fight for each other, and that’s what we did. That’s what got us the win,” he said. “It’s bred into us every day in practice to come out and be as loud as we can and make as much noise as we can. It’s fun. It’s fun for everyone playing and fun for them watching, and it really helps us.”
MSU used a 4-2 victory against No. 71 Arkansas (11-12, 1-6 SEC) and a 4-0 win against Nicholls State (10-8) on Sunday afternoon to earn the weekend sweep and record one of the best starts at home in program history.
Arkansas’s first-year head coach Andy Jackson made a welcomed return to Starkville. 
Jackson coached the MSU men’s team from 1989-2001 and led the squad to multiple SEC titles, including three NCAA quarterfinal appearances and a pair trips to the NCAA semi-finals. 
Bulldog head coach Per Nilsson, who played for Jackson from 1991-94, said Arkansas has a bright future with Jackson at the helm.
“It’s never fun because I have a lot of respect for him. He’s been coaching for so long and has a really young team there,” he said. “It’s good to beat him, but he’s going to get that team going real quick. We have to take advantage of our chances while we have them.”
At the start of singles, Arkansas led first, extending its lead to 2-0 as Manfred Jeske defeated MSU’s No. 91 Malte Stropp 6-1, 6-4 on court two. That point would prove to be the last of the day for the Razorbacks as MSU played off the momentum on what was looking to be an upset in the making for the Hogs by taking three consecutive three-set wins to clinch. 
The Bulldogs got their first point of the day from No. 69 Florian Lakat, who defeated UA’s Mike Nott 7-6(4), 6-1. MSU evened the score at 2-2 when Zach White fought back after dropping his first set to defeat the Razorbacks’ Hall Fess 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Tassilo Schmid grabbed MSU’s first lead of the day with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win, and Angus clinched his second match of the weekend with a 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-1 victory. 
Nilsson said despite losing the doubles point, he was proud of the fight his team provided.
“I thought we did great. I thought that we found ourselves in a little bit of a hole again after losing the doubles match, and whenever you do that it’s hard to come back. We did the same thing that we did Friday. We had a good team meeting afterwards and came out strong,” Nilsson said. 
MSU struck first in the match against Nicholls State with a quick doubles point victory. 
With the same momentum they produced during doubles play, the Bulldogs kept up the energy in singles as they took straight-sets to rise to a 4-0 victory against the Colonels. 
Schmid was the first Bulldog off the court, as he handled NSU’s Sam Meessan 6-3, 6-3 to up the MSU lead to 2-0.
Angus followed with a 6-4, 6-1 victory before White upset NSU’s No. 107 Nico Mertens 6-3, 6-2 to win the match for MSU.
White said even though it was a long weekend of tennis, he played his best match in the weekend finale.
“We started off the day against Arkansas, and I started a little slow. I dropped a set right away, but the good thing about today was that I progressively improved as the day went on. I finished the strongest I’ve played, I think, all semester. I was really proud of that clinch,” White said. 
Nilsson said the Bulldogs seek to get healthy as the team travels to Oxford, Miss., next weekend to take on the No. 45 Ole Miss Rebels.
“We had a really tough road trip for spring break and came back with a win at the end, and I think that helped us,” Nilsson said. “We really wanted to go 3-0 this weekend. Now we need to recover a little bit, get some guys healthy and be ready for next weekend which will be extremely difficult up in Oxford.”