STARKVILLE, Miss. ? Mississippi State's women's tennis team fell to fourth-ranked Florida 7-0 Sunday at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. The Lady Bulldogs dropped to 7-7 overall with the loss and 0-6 in league play. Florida improved to 12-1, 6-0.
UF started the match grabbing the doubles point. On court No. 3, the State duo of Valeriya Makarycheva and DeAndra Saddler fell to the 44th-ranked Florida duo of Julia Cohen and Anastasia Revzina 8-2. Then, on court No. 1, Florida's Whitney Benik and Csilla Borsanyi defeated MSU's Martina Banikova and Elna de Villiers 8-2 to claim the doubles point. In the final doubles match, State's Radka Ferancova and Renee Joseph fell to UF's Megan Alexander and Lolita Frangulyan 8-3. It marks the first time all season the Lady Bulldogs have been swept in doubles play.
In singles action, Florida took a 3-0 match lead with straight-set victories in the first two matches completed. On court No. 3, the 177th-ranked Alexander defeated Ferancova 6-0, 6-3. Then, on court No. 5, Saddler would fall to #93 Revzina 6-3, 6-2.
The match clincher would come on court No. 2 where Florida's 28th-ranked Cohen defeated State's Joseph 6-0, 6-2.
UF then secured the final three matches to complete the sweep of the Lady Bulldogs. At the No. 6 position, Makarycheva was ousted by Frangulyan 6-1, 6-3. On court No. 4, MSU's de Villiers fell to Benik 6-2, 6-4. In the last singles match, UF's 36th-ranked Cohen claimed victory over Banikova 7-6(5), 6-4 at No. 1 to give the Gators the 7-0 team victory.
Mississippi State will remain at home next weekend when they host #23 Kentucky on Friday, March 28, at 2 p.m. CT. On Sunday, March 30, the Lady Bulldogs will welcome 11th-ranked Vanderbilt at 1 p.m. to close out 2008 Super Bulldog weekend festivities.
#4 Florida 7, #59 Mississippi State 0
March 23, 2008 ? Starkville, Miss.
DOUBLES ? Csilla Borsanyi/Whitney Benik (UF) def. Martina Banikova/Elna de Villiers (MSU) 8-2; Megan Alexander/Lolita Frangulyan (UF) def. Radka Ferancova/Renee Joseph (MSU) 8-3; #44 Julia Cohen/Anastasia Revzina (UF) def. Valeriya Makarycheva/DeAndra Saddler (UF) 8-2.
SINGLES ?#36 Cohen (UF) def. Banikova (MSU) 7-6(5), 6-4; #28 Barsanyi (UF) def Joseph (MSU) 6-0, 6-2; #117 Alexander (UF) def. Ferancova (MSU) 6-0, 6-3; Benik (UF) def. de Villiers (MSU) 6-2, 6-4; Revzina (UF) 6-3, 6-2; Frangulyan (UF) def. Makarycheva (MSU) 6-1, 6-3.
(numbers preceding names are current national rankings)
