Ranked Bulldogs, Gators Battle In Gainesville On Friday

Friday, April 14

Gainesville, Fla.

4:00 PM

Mississippi State

Florida

Bulldogs set to take on Gators this Friday at 4 p.m. CT.

Ranked Bulldogs, Gators Battle In Gainesville On Friday

April 13, 2017 | Men's Tennis

STARKVILLE, Miss. – With only two matches remaining for the 2017 regular season, the 17th-ranked Mississippi State men's tennis team (17-5, 8-2 SEC) travels to 16th-ranked Florida (14-8, 7-3 SEC) on Friday as the Bulldogs seek to continue their stellar play of late.

First serve between the Bulldogs and Gators is set for 4 p.m. CT at the Ring Tennis Complex. Live stats and video for Friday's match will be provided by FloridaGators.com. MSU will cap the regular season on Sunday at 11 a.m. CT against No. 22 South Carolina.

"We're very excited to finish the regular season off strong this weekend with two great opponents," head coach Matt Roberts said. "Every match is another opportunity to get better and we're going to take advantage of that on Friday against Florida. We've had a great week of training, so I know our guys will be ready to compete tomorrow."

Friday's match will be crucial for SEC Tournament seeding as MSU currently sits third and UF fourth in the league standings.

Last weekend the Bulldogs upset No. 7 Texas A&M before taking care of LSU as the Maroon and White capped its home slate on a high note. MSU was able to capture the doubles points in both contests, before racing out to clinch against TAMU and LSU.

Instrumental to both wins was MSU's Nuno Borges, who earned his second SEC Player of the Week honor this season following the impressive weekend performance. Borges clinched State's 4-3 win over No. 7 TAMU with his defeat of No. 8 Arthur Rinderknech. The sophomore Bulldog improved to 27-5 overall and collected his 16th and 17th singles ranked wins of the season.

On Friday, the Bulldogs will use a familiar lineup in both doubles and singles play against the Gators. MSU's No. 27 Niclas Braun and Trevor Foshey will top the doubles lineup, Mate Cutura and Vaughn Hunter at No. 2 and the pair of Borges and Strahinja Rakic rounding out the order. In singles No. 4 Borges will lead the Bulldogs with Cutura, No. 123 Rakic, Braun, Giovanni Oradini and Foshey to follow.

Who To Watch For MSU
No. 4 Borges will put his record against top-10 foes on the line Friday when the sophomore faces No. 9 Alfredo Perez of UF. The Bulldog has faced eight top-10 players in singles action this season, going 3-2. Borges and Perez faced off at the ITA National Team Indoors in February, but the match was suspended in the third set after the Gators clinched the 4-2 win over MSU.

Previewing The Gators
UF returns home after a four-match road swing that saw the Gators go 2-2, with losses to Kentucky and Georgia. On the season the Gators are 9-2 in Gainesville, with UF only losing to Ohio State and Texas A&M at home.

Who To Watch For Florida
The Gators have two ranked players in singles and one ranked doubles team. Alfredo Perez ranks ninth overall in singles and sixth in doubles with partner Johannes Ingildsen. Elliot Orkin ranks 77th overall as well for the Gators in singles play.

Up Next
No. 17 MSU travels to No. 22 South Carolina for its final match of the regular season as the Bulldogs and Gamecocks face off on Sunday at 11 a.m. CT. MSU will be idle until the start of the SEC Championship on April 26-30.

Live Video/Stats
Live video and statistics for Friday's match can be found here.

Additional Notes

Florida leads the all-time series over MSU, 34-17
The Gators have won three out of the last four matchups
MSU hasn't won in Gainesville since 2013
State lost to UF this season in non-conference action at the ITA Indoors
MSU is 7-4 against ranked foes this season
When winning the doubles point, the Bulldogs are 10-2 this season
Mate Cutura and Vaughn Hunter have clinched seven doubles points for MSU this season
No. 4 Nuno Borges leads the Bulldogs in singles play with a 27-5 record overall
Borges has earned 22 ranked singles wins over his short career
No. 123 Strahinja Rakic is second on the team at 16-9 overall in singles