The men’s tennis team was in Lexington, Ky. this weekend participating in the National Indoor Championship regionals. Coach Per Nilsson previously said this was the most important tournament for his Bulldogs this fall.
The Bulldogs participated in all three days of the tournament, but overall it was a tough weekend for Mississippi State.
Senior Ryan Farlow and sophomores Antonio Lastre and Tanner Stump started the tournament off on a good note by winning their first-round matches rather handily. The trio would struggle in the second round as all players dropped their second-round matches. Stump was able to push the 19th-ranked player in the country, Bruno Agostinelli of Kentucky, to the limit in the first set, 7-5, but fell in the second set and the match, 6-2.
After dropping their first matches, freshman Daniel Sanchez and junior Chris Doerr rebounded nicely in their next matches on Friday. Doerr won his match 7-5, 6-1 over Leon Nasemann of Memphis while Sanchez was able to take care of Kennesaw State’s
Michael Langel 6-0, 6-2.
Five Bulldogs went on to participate in singles action Saturday.
Lastre was able to win both of his matches, knocking off SEC foes Christian Hansen of Tennessee and Ryan Lissner of LSU, respectively.
Sanchez was able to win his second consecutive match of the tournament, knocking off LSU’s Cody Loup 6-4, 6-4. Because of their performances, both were able to secure consolation matches on Sunday.
The other Bulldogs did not fare so well as Farlow, Stump and Chris Doerr all dropped their matches on day two, despite playing very competitively and forcing third sets in two of their matches.
The Bulldogs wrapped up their weekend by sending both Lastre and Sanchez to the courts Sunday. Both played well but were unable to pull out a victory. Lastre lost his match in two very close sets to Tennessee’s Davey Sandgren 7-6, 7-5 while Sanchez was forced to retire late into his first set because of an arm injury, leaving the match with a first set score of 5-5.
Both Nilsson and Sanchez say the injury is not serious and is merely being treated as a precaution.
Despite the weekend’s results, Nilsson said his players performed well for the most part, but simply weren’t able to make the adjustments necessary during their matches to pull out a few more victories.
“This is a really good tournament. We were able to win some games here and there but just came up short during a few matches,” Nilsson said. “Playing indoors isn’t an excuse for us because I feel our players are good enough to make the adjustments regardless of where we’re playing.”
The Bulldogs will travel to Tuscaloosa this weekend for the Crimson Tide Invitational.