Coming off a tough weekend in which both the men’s and women’s teams went winless, the Mississippi State tennis teams continue SEC play this weekend with South Carolina and Florida.
The women’s team (9-3, 0-3 SEC) hosts No. 40 South Carolina (8-7, 1-4 SEC) today then travels to No. 14 Florida (9-5, 3-1 SEC) Sunday.
“We are getting ready to go to fight,” MSU senior Elna de Villiers said. “Over Spring Break, we accomplished our goal to win all the non-conference games. That gives us a lot of confidence for our SEC games.”
South Carolina is led by national No. 34 Gira Schofield. The senior has collected a 17-8 record in singles matches over the year at the first position but recently she has formed a tough team with Dijana Stojic. Together, Schofield and Stojic are undefeated on the year in the first doubles position.
South Carolina will play junior No. 41 Ana Zubori in the No. 2 singles position. Zubori started the Spring ranked 14th nationally and currently stands 21-3 on the year.
Florida is on a three match winning streak, including a 4-3 win over national No. 2 Georgia. UF has a very deep team, sporting four nationally ranked singles players including No. 5 Marrit Boonstra and Anastasia Revzina. Boonstra is 24-5 on the year and is on a 15-match winning streak. Revzina has not lost in March, collecting four wins on the trot.
Senior Martina Banikova will compete against Schofield and Boonstra in the first singles position.
“We are working on our doubles, winning that gives you a 1-0 lead. Every team is a new opportunity to pick up wins,” Banikova said. “All teams left on our schedule are ahead of us in the rankings. No team is easy.”
After peaking at No. 46 on March 10, MSU has seen its national ranking fall from No. 52 last week to a current No. 61.
“We completed our first goal of the season, Banikova said. “Now we want to make the post season and to do that we have to get our ranking back to around 40.”
First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Center.
The men’s team gets the reverse of the women’s schedule, traveling to No. 16 South Carolina today and hosting No. 7 Florida Sunday at 1 p.m. Last weekend, the No. 55 Bulldogs (5-8, 1-3 SEC) dropped three straight 4-3 matches to ranked opponents at the Blue-Grey Tournament in Montgomery, Ala.
MSU head coach Per Nilsson said the tournament helps prepare a team for the NCAA championships.
“The great thing about the Blue-Grey Tournament was that you get three matches in a row, to win the NCAA Championship you have to win four in a row,” he said.
Sunday’s loss to Virgina Commonwealth was the first time this season the Bulldogs have lost to a team ranked lower than they are in the national polls. The other two losses were against No. 24 Notre Dame and No. 40 Oklahoma.
“We just need more experience,” Nilsson said. “We have lost because we were not experienced and we have had chances to win. We have had so many close matches that soon enough we will be winning all of them.”
The next few weeks will be tough for the Bulldogs while they compete in SEC play without second position singles player Daniel Sanchez, who will be out indefinitely with a torn meniscus.
Nilsson said he thinks the team should be able to handle losing Sanchez for a few matches. “We should be that deep,” Nilsson said. We just want him to be 100 percent when he comes back. We lost him right after we beat Auburn. They were a top 20 team. We get on a roll and lose a player.”
South Carolina (13-3, 2-2 SEC) reached its highest ranking of the season this week following a win over No. 25 Wake Forest. The Gamecocks are undefeated at home and each of their three losses has come to top five teams, twice losing to No. 3 Georgia and once to No. 5 Tennessee. No. 50 singles player Diego Cubas has struggled in the SEC slate, having failed to win a singles match against an SEC foe this season while playing in the first position.
Florida (11-5, 2-2 SEC) leads with two top 25 players in its lineup. No. 14 Alex LeCroix will go against No. 108 Bulldog Ryan Farlow at the top of the lineup and No. 24 Carlos Cueto will take the Gators second position. The sophomore and freshman also pair together in the third spot for the Gators doubles team.
Bulldog senior Farlow said he is placing a lot of importance on this weekend.
“We have to take one if not both to get back on course to make the NCAA tournament,” Farlow said. “Everyone is playing well, but we are starting slow on Sundays. Coaches are preaching to forget about the loses.”
Nilsson is looking for a home court advantage against the Gators Sunday.
“The crowd has been unbelievable. It really has made the difference,” Nilsson said.