The men’s tennis team will be in Tallahassee, Fla., this weekend participating in the Florida State Invitational.
This will be the first time Mississippi State
has participated in the invitational.
The Bulldogs are hoping
for a strong performance as
this will be their final weekend
of competition for the fall season.
State is coming off a weekend
that saw several players have
success over the weekend at the
Crimson Tide Invitational in
Tuscaloosa, Ala. Most notable
of these performances was that
of sophomore Antonio Lastre.
Lastre won four matches over
the tournament including a
title match win for the Hannah
Draw crown on Sunday. Lastre
was able to outlast South
Florida’s Thomas Estrada in
consecutive sets, 6-4, 6-3.
“Tony is doing everything
we ask for and working every
day to improve his game. It is
really starting to show in his
matches,” said head coach Per
Nilsson.
It is this kind of success
that the Bulldogs are hoping to
carry into this weekend’s tournament,
which will kick off
Saturday and finish Monday.
For the Bulldogs, it will be the
last tournament they play in
for two and a half months.
The time off from play will
be much deserved for the
Bulldogs as it will give them
a chance to get healthy and
improve their game before the
next semester begins. Although
the real season does not begin
until the spring semester, both
the players and coaches understand
how important it is for
them to improve their game
during their downtime.
“We’re going to keep working
as hard as we can. We
don’t get much of a chance to
work in the spring,” said junior
Christopher Doerr. “We’ll take
Christmas and the holidays to
get rest. We’re going to keep
working hard and improve as
much as we can.”
Nilsson and assistant coach
Matt Hill both said they feel
their players have done well
over the past couple of months
despite injuries.
“We’ve seen only good things
from the guys this fall. The
improvement the guys have
shown in the past two months
is quicker than we would have
anticipated,” Hill said.
An area of improvement
for the Bulldogs of late has
been their mental toughness
on the court. Some players
say they are no longer just
going out there and playing,
but rather are using their heads
more and trying to use that
to their advantage in match
play. Perhaps this is one of
the reasons for the Bulldogs’
motivated play last weekend
and, players hope, will be a
reason they come away from
Tallahassee this weekend successful.
“We’ve really gotten more
consistent and we’re using our
brains on the court. We’re looking
forward to going to the invitational
this weekend,”Doerr
said. “We need to keep working
because we don’t get many
chances to once the spring season
starts.”
The next time the Bulldogs
will compete will be Jan.
16-19 at the SEC Indoor
Championships.