MEN’S
On senior day, the Mississippi State men’s tennis team (6-14, 2-9 SEC) was forced to witness rivals Ole Miss (21-2, 11-0 SEC) complete an undefeated SEC season and claim their first conference title since 2005.
Ole Miss’s title marks their fifth SEC championship and second undefeated conference season.
The Rebels have not finished lower than second in the SEC since 2003. Chadwick has not lost to the Bulldogs since 1999, a string of 21 straight victories.
“With as tough as the league has been this year, to go undefeated in the SEC is an outstanding accomplishment,” Chadwick said. “We had tremendous leadership from the seniors.”
The lack of upperclassmen hurt the Bulldogs over the long SEC season. In a much anticipated match up, lone Bulldog senior Ryan Farlow fell 6-1, 7-5 to Devin Britton in his final match at State. Skilled MSU freshman Artem Ilyushin saw his two match conference winning streak snapped by Kalle Norberg. Norberg, ranked No. 15 nationally, who stormed through the conference undefeated.
The Bulldogs were completely dominated by the No. 5 Rebels. MSU only won two sets, both of which came from sophomore Antonio Lastre. Lastre’s win came on a super tiebreaker after the Rebels had swept straight set wins in the five other singles matches.
One bright spot for the Bulldogs was the return of Daniel Sanchez to the line up. Sanchez had been out for most the SEC campaign with injury.
“It was a tough match to watch, but it was good to get Daniel (Sanchez) back into our lineup,” said Mississippi State head coach Per Nilsson. “We need to forget about today’s outcome and get ready for the SEC tournament which will give us a good chance to redeem ourselves.”
WOMEN’S
The women’s team had no more luck in Oxford against the Ole Miss women. The Lady Bulldogs (10-9, 1-9 SEC) lost 4-0 to No. 25 Ole Miss (12-8, 5-6 SEC).
In doubles, the Rebels clinically won the matches in order of seeding.
Laura van de Stroet and Mimi Renaudin fended off the upset bid from State’s Radka Ferancova and Valeriya Makarycheva.
Ole Miss head coach Mark Beyer seemed relieved that the match was so one sided.
