The Mississippi State women’s tennis team split its matches last week, defeating University of New Orleans 4-3 and falling to 27th-ranked Tulane 7-0.
MSU faced New Orleans on Thursday at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. State won the doubles point with a victory at the No. 2 position and a win by forfeit at the No. 3 position.
Lady Bulldogs Marcelle Hirt and Justyna Switala defeated UNO’s Liselott Hedenburg and Laetitia Zembski 9-7.
At the No. 1 spot, State’s Anastasia Kugakolova and Magdi Rekasi fell to Privateers Lucie Mazinova and Patricia Osedumme 9-8(5).
“Marcelle and Justyna’s win was really big,” said head coach Tracy Lane said. “We played well enough and managed to pull it out.”
UNO forfeited the No. 6 singles position, leaving the Lady Bulldogs to need just two more singles wins for the team victory. State would get those two wins at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions. After losing at the No. 1 and No. 5 spots, State’s Rekasi defeated UNO’s Osedumme 7-5, 6-3 at the No. 3 position.
Tarryn Rudman would clinch the match for State, continuing her undefeated streak with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Michaela Fogelburg.
In the last match of the day, UNO’s Zembski defeated MSU’s Kugakolova in a third set super tiebreaker 6-3, 6-7(5), 11-9.
“They had good depth,” Lane said. “We played good tennis. We’ve been winning a lot of close matches.”
The Lady Bulldogs traveled to Tulane on Sunday to face the 27th-ranked Green Wave at the Goldring Tennis Center in New Orleans. Tulane swept the doubles point, including an 8-1 victory over Kugakolova and Rekasi at the No. 1 position.
“Even though we lost the doubles, we played much better than against UNO,” Lane said, “but we’re going to need to make improvements to win doubles down the road.”
In singles, the Green Wave would win every match in straight sets. No. 47 Maria Ivanov defeated MSU’s Hirt 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 1 position.
At No. 2, 55th-ranked Jenny Kuhn defeated Kugakolova 6-3, 6-1. At No. 3, State’s Rekasi fell to Darya Ivanov 6-1, 6-1. MSU freshman Tarryn Rudman dropped her first match of the season, falling to Dorottya Magas 6-1, 6-4.
At No. 5, Tulane’s Nancy Kockott defeated Switala 6-2, 6-1. Playing the No. 6 position, State’s Hayley Rudman lost to Ana Saaibi 6-0, 6-0.
“We didn’t play as well today as we have in the past,” Lane said, “but we were playing considerably stronger talent. I see Tulane as a top ten team by April or May. We had some close games but just weren’t able to execute on the key points. They’re a really solid team.”