NO. 25 MSU WOMEN?S TENNIS SET TO HOST NO. 7 GEORGIA SUNDAY
March 05, 2016 | Women's Tennis
STARKVILLE, Miss. – To close out its current four-match homestand, the 25th-ranked Mississippi State women's tennis team (10-1, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) hosts No. 7 Georgia (7-1, 1-0) in an important SEC showdown at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre Sunday afternoon. The match is slated for a 1 p.m. CT start.
MSU is coming off of an impressive 6-1 ousting of No. 54 Tennessee at home Friday to open up 2016 conference play. State's highlight of the match was 11th-ranked sophomore Jasmine Lee as she clinched the match for MSU at the top spot over the Lady Vols' 65th-ranked Sadie Hammond 6-4, 6-4, overcoming an early 3-1 deficit in the second set to do so. The ranked win for Lee was her 11th of the season and first in dual-match action.
Complementing Lee in the win was great play up and down the Bulldog lineup, including 43rd-ranked Anastasia Rentouli who stayed undefeated (9-0) this spring with an impressive 6-1, 6-0 win on court 4. Jennifer Brown won her fifth straight contest with an equally strong straight-set win at No. 6. Bulldogs Kristina Vozniak and 103rd-ranked Georgiana Patrasc both pulled out tough three-set wins against UT, Vozniak to win her sixth match in a row and Patrasc extending her team-leading win streak to 11.
Sunday's match versus UGA will feature two teams coming off SEC victories, after the Bulldogs of Athens blanked No. 26 Ole Miss 4-0 in Oxford on Friday night. UGA has two doubles teams ranked in the latest ITA poll, with the tandem of Caroline Brinson and Silvia Garcia coming in at No. 38 and the 40th-ranked duo of Ellen Perez and Mariana Gould. Georgia also boasts four ranked singles players in No. 14 Perez, No. 22 Brinson, No. 64 Garcia and No. 98 Kennedy Shaffer.
Both teams come in a combined 17-2 this season with only one loss each on their ledgers. MSU's only setback thus far was 4-1 at now-No. 6 Duke in the ITA Kick-off Weekend final. UGA's lone blemish was a 4-2 loss to now-No. 3 North Carolina in the semifinals of the ITA National Indoor Championships.
“We want to get the big win,” head coach Daryl Greenan said. “They are seventh in the country and these are the matches we've been excited about having a chance to play. We've done a good job of getting solid wins and we are ready to pull off an upset now. The next five teams we play are in the top 15 so that's five chances to pull off an upset.”
Following Sunday's affair, MSU hits the road next weekend to face No. 14 Texas A&M and No. 9 LSU on Friday, March 11, and Sunday, March 13.
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