The Mississippi State men’s tennis team welcomed two new players this week, following strong individual showings at the SEC Indoor Championships.
Four Bulldogs won their opening round matches and two MSU netmen reached the quarterfinals.
Sophomore Antonio Lastre built on a strong fall campaign as he reached the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket. The Spain native improved to a team best 14-8 this season.
Freshman Belgium native Louis Cant received a baptism by fire for his debut in the Maroon and White, being thrust into SEC competition. He thrived, reaching the quarterfinals of his first collegiate tournament before falling in straight sets to top seed and Intercollegiate Tennis’ second ranked player in the nation, Michael Venus of LSU.
“The tournament worked to get to know each other before the season,” said Cant, who has only been enrolled at MSU for two weeks.
Cant is one of the most highly regarded young players in Belgium. The Brugge native currently ranks 26th among countrymen younger than 18. Two years ago at age 16, Cant won the Belgian Masters and made the semifinals of the Youth Belgian Championship.
“The entire complex here [at MSU] is good. The courts are nice and the fitness training is good,” Cant said. “There are lots of good teams, but we stick together very well.”
Cant joins Russian native Arten Ilyushin to make five new Bulldogs this year.
“Finally we have everyone here that we wanted,” MSU head coach Per Nilsson said. “[Ilyushin] is a top player. Recruiting has been going awesome.”
Ilyushin has not had a chance to play for MSU yet since he just arrived on campus Monday. He will make the Bulldogs’ upcoming trip to California, where he has spent the last six months training.
“This is amazing here, you can get everything you want
[at State],” said Ilyushin, the youngest man on the nine-man roster. “The atmosphere here is great, everyone here wants to be the No. 1 team.”
Ilyushin currently stands as the No. 3 youth singles player among his countrymen and No. 76 worldwide. He also is ranked among the top 20 players overall in Russia.
“It is really never easy to be a player who joins the team in January because most of the time you spend in the fall is getting used to everything,” Nilsson said.
After the SEC Indoor Championships, Nilsson said he was most impressed with how the new recruits were welcomed by the team.
“We knew they’d fit in, that is why we wanted these players,” Nilsson said. “I just told my assistant on the bus back from Kentucky it seems like they have been enrolled here for a year.”
Contrary to the success in the singles game, both of MSU’s doubles entries bounced in the first round and could not make it past the first round of the consolation bracket.
“We have a lot of work to do in doubles,” Nilsson said. “That’s the key to winning matches in this conference.”
State now looks to the first round of National Indoor Tennis Championships in Los Angeles where the Bulldogs will play No. 6 Southern California and Saint Mary’s.
“You always like to get an early match against a top-ranked team like USC,” Nilsson said. “It shows the players what a good team is like. It shows them what we want to be.”
Nine of MSU’s future opponents, including eight SEC teams, are currently ranked in the ITA top 25. Those nine teams are Georgia, USC, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Florida, LSU, Alabama, Vanderbilt and Auburn, respectively.