No. 7 Bulldogs Set For NCAA Super Regional Showdown With No. 9 TCU Saturday

by Caleb Garner, Graduate Assistant/Communications

STARKVILLE – Two tennis programs with storied NCAA histories will collide Saturday in Starkville as the seventh-ranked Mississippi State men's tennis team hosts ninth-ranked and 10^th-seeded TCU in one of eight NCAA Super Regionals being played this weekend around the country.

The two-time reigning SEC Tournament champion Bulldogs (24-3) are set to tangle with the Horned Frogs (21-6) at 1 p.m. CT at MSU's A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. Every effort will be made to play the match outside at MSU. However, due to the forecast for inclement weather Saturday and most of the day Sunday, the match could be moved indoors to Alabama's Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility. If the decision to move the match is made, fans will be notified via MSU's social media channels and on HailState.com.

MSU and TCU will be meeting for the second time in 2019, after clashing in Chicago at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. The Horned Frogs claimed a 4-1 victory in that affair. The Bulldogs will be looking to extend their current 14-match winning streak that started on March 11.

The Maroon and White is making its 24^th all-time appearance in the NCAA Team Championship. State has now advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 for the 14^th time, including three times in the last four years and two in a row.

TCU is making its 30^th all-time appearance in the NCAA Team Championship. The Horned Frogs are into the NCAA Round of 16 for the 18^th time, including the fifth-straight season.

The winner of Saturday's MSU-TCU battle will travel to the final site of the 2019 NCAA Team Championship at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida. There, they would take on either No. 2 Texas or No. 24 California in the national quarterfinals this Thursday, May 16. The Longhorns and Bears are scheduled to face off Saturday afternoon in a Super Regional battle in Austin, Texas.

Tickets
Tickets for the NCAA event at MSU may be purchased in advance or on the day of the match. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for senior citizens, college students, and children 17 & under. Children ages 2 & under will be admitted free. Fans interested in purchasing advance tickets may do so by contacting the Mississippi State Athletic Ticket Office (662-325-2600, 1-888-GO-DAWGS or www.hailstate.com/tickets).

MSU In The Oracle ITA Rankings …
The Bulldogs are currently ranked seventh nationally (in the latest ITA rankings on May 1), marking the 25^th straight edition of the rankings in which MSU has appeared in the top 25 and its 21^st appearance in a row in the top 10. In the ITA national singles rankings, three-time SEC Player of the Year Nuno Borges earned the nation's No. 1 ranking for the first time in his career, making him the fifth Bulldog in history to earn the top billing and just the second to do so in both singles and doubles. Giovanni Oradini is currently 61^st nationally. State boasts a pair of ranked doubles tandems in third-ranked Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic and No. 32 Niclas Braun and Giovanni Oradini.

MSU In The NCAA Individual Championships …
On April 30, Borges earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Singles Championship. Most recently, Oradini accepted an invitation into the singles field of 64 after originally being listed as the first alternate, giving the Bulldogs two singles participants for the second straight year. In doubles, Borges and Rakic earned an automatic bid as the No. 3 overall seed, while Braun and Oradini garnered an at-large bid, marking the first time State has ever fielded two doubles pairs in the championship. The NCAA Individual Championships run May 20-25 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, after the team tourney concludes.

Know The Foe: TCU
TCU advanced to its fifth straight NCAA Round of 16 with a pair of 4-1 victories in Fort Worth. As the 10^th-seeded team in the team championship, the Horned Frogs dispatched both Harvard and Arizona State by 4-1 margins in the first and second rounds. TCU has notched eight Top-25 victories this season, with three of those coming against top-10 foes – one of those against Mississippi State in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in February.

The Horned Frogs are led by 2019 Big 12 Co-Player of the Year Alex Rybakov, who is ranked fourth nationally in singles. Rybakov owns a sparkling 23-3 overall record in his senior season, including a 15-3 mark at No. 1 singles this spring. Alastair Gray is the second ranked Horned Frog in singles, coming in at No. 28 with an 18-5 overall ledger. This spring, Gray has been a staple at the No. 2 position, going 13-4 in dual match play.

In doubles, Gray and Rybakov form the nation's 15^th-ranked tandem after earning ITA Doubles All-American honors a year ago. The duo is 15-7 overall, including a 13-6 dual-match mark, 9-5 at the No. 1 spot. Bertus Kruger and Reese Stalder pair up to provide TCU a second top-25 team, ranked 22^nd nationally and holding an 18-7 mark in 2018-19. This spring, Kruger and Stalder are 16-7 with an 11-5 record at the No. 2 position.

Need To Know …

Mississippi State is playing its 95^th season of men's tennis, with Matt Roberts in his fifth season at the helm.
State is a top-16 national seed (No. 7) for the second year in a row
MSU's No. 7 national ranking marks the 25^th straight time the Bulldogs appeared in the top 25 of the Oracle ITA Rankings and its 21^st straight appearance in the top 10.
In the NCAA Team Championship under Roberts, the Bulldogs are 9-4 in five trips. MSU has advanced past the first round in all five, including nine years in a row. In total, the Bulldogs are making their 28^th appearance in the NCAA Tennis Championship, their ninth in a row and 24^th in the last 28 years.
The Bulldogs and Horned Frogs have met six times in total, with the series deadlocked at 3-3. This Super Regional bout will be the first-ever between the teams in NCAA competition. The two teams met earlier this season, with TCU claiming a 4-1 victory at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Chicago on Feb. 17.
Top-ranked MSU senior Nuno Borges now ranks atop the MSU career charts in career wins (181), singles wins (115), dual match wins (134) and dual match singles wins (80), while he is tied for fourth in dual match doubles triumphs (54).
Borges has won a career-best 25 straight matches at present and is 24-0 in dual match singles play this spring. He needs one more win to match Thomas Dupre's school-record streak of 26 singles wins.
Borges and senior Strahinja Rakic team up to form MSU's all-time winningest doubles pair (55), while senior Niclas Braun and junior Giovanni Oradini are third with 46 wins.
Braun is currently second in career doubles wins (89) and first in dual match doubles wins (59) at MSU. In career dual match wins, the German is tied for third (117) and ranks fourth in career victories (174).
Senior Trevor Foshey has won 12 of his last 13 singles matches, including 10 in a row.
Braun has won five matches in a row and nine of his last 11, while Rakic has earned three straight singles wins and six of his last seven. Florian Broska has won three of his last four decisions.

Live Scoring/Video
Live scoring and video will be available for the Bulldogs' Super Regional match vs. TCU at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre via hailstate.com/livemt.

Last Time Out For MSU…
On May 4, the Bulldogs punched their ticket to the NCAA Round of 16 for the second year in a row and the third time in four years with a 4-0 victory over South Alabama. Against the Jaguars, State claimed the doubles point with wins on courts 2 and 3 before taking all six first sets in singles. During those second sets, a pair of light showers went through the area, halting play for no more than an hour each time. Moments after resuming play the second time, State sealed the deal by closing out three straight singles matches with wins by Trevor Foshey, Nuno Borges and Florian Broska, who provided the clincher.

For more information on the Mississippi State men's tennis program, follow "HailStateMT" on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Mississippi State University Athletics

No. 7 Bulldogs Set For NCAA Super Regional Showdown With No. 9 TCU Saturday

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