Mississippi State Tennis Drops Tough Home Decision To No. 7 Florida

Sunday, March 29

Starkville

1:00 PM

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Mississippi State Tennis Drops Tough Home Decision To No. 7 Florida

March 29, 2009 | Men's Tennis

By: hailstate.com

STARKVILLE, Miss. ? The 55th-ranked Mississippi State men's tennis team dropped a tough home decision to the No. 7 Florida Gators, 6-1, Sunday afternoon.

Mississippi State fell to 5-10 on the season and 1-5 in Southeastern Conference, while Florida snapped a three-match losing streak to push their record to 12-6 and 3-3 in conference play.

The Bulldogs were swept in doubles, with the MSU tandem of Ryan Farlow and Antonio Lastre being the first to fall to Carlos Cueto and Alex Lacroix of Florida at No. 3, 8-3. Shortly following was the State freshman duo of Louis Cant and Artem Ilyushin slipping up to Jeff Dadamo and Johnny Hamui, 8-3, at No. 2. At No. 1, junior Chris Doerr and sophomore Tanner Stump of State followed with an 8-4 setback to the Florida tandem of Antoine Benneteau and Joey Burkhardt.

Florida would follow their strong doubles showing and claim the first four singles matches from MSU, with the sophomore Lastre being the first to fall at the No. 4 position to Florida's Burkhardt in identical sets, 6-1, 6-1. The Bulldogs' Stump was then dropped by Dadamo in a two-set match at the No. 6 slot, 6-1, 7-5. MSU's 108th-ranked Farlow gave a sound effort but wasn't able to upset the 24th-ranked Gator Cueto, who clinched the match for UF at the No. 1 spot, 6-4, 6-1. State's rookie Cant then fell to Benneteau, 6-0, 6-3, at No. 3.

State would gets it lone point of the afternoon in a big upset produced by Ilyushin to put MSU on the scoreboard, as he handed the Gators' 14th- ranked Lacroix a loss at the No. 2 position in a three-setter that concluded in an exciting super tiebreaker, 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(11).

The MSU junior Doerr's match rounded out play for the day, falling at the No. 5 spot to Hamui of UF in a tight 6-4, 7-6(3) decision.

“We have to be more consistent from top to bottom in our lineup,” said Mississippi State head coach Per Nilsson. “I did not feel we got the same effort today that we had against South Carolina Friday. Artem (Ilyushin) played way above what was expected of him today and is not performing like a freshman, but we need the other guys to feed off his play and be better than they are right now.”

MSU will resume league play this weekend when they host a pair of matches, first on Friday, April 3, at 2 p.m. CT against the 49th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores. State will them welcome No. 13 Kentucky in a 1 p.m. CT match Sunday, April 5.

#7 FLORIDA 6, #55 MISSISSIPPI STATE 1
Starkville, Miss. ? 3/29/09

DOUBLES ? Antoine Benneteau/Joey Burkhardt (UF) def. Chris Doerr/Tanner Stump (MSU) 8-4; Jeff Dadamo/Johnny Hamui (UF) def. Louis Cant/Artem Ilyushin (MSU) 8-3; Carlos Cueto/Alex Lacroix (UF) def. Ryan Farlow/Antonio Lastre (MSU) 8-3.

SINGLES ? Cueto (UF) def. Farlow (MSU) 6-4, 6-1; Ilyushin (MSU) def. Lacroix (UF) 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(11); Benneteau (UF) def. Cant (MSU) 6-0, 6-3; Burkhardt (UF) def. Lastre (MSU) 6-1, 6-1; Hamui (UF) def. Doerr (MSU) 6-4, 7-6(3); Dadamo (UF) def. Stump (MSU) 6-1, 7-5.

Order of Finish: Doubles ? 3,2,1; Singles ? 4,6,1,3,2,5.