Women's Tennis Travels To ITA Southern Regionals

Thursday, October 14

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Mississippi State

ITA Southern Regional

Photo by: Chamberlain Smith/MSU Athletics

Women's Tennis Travels To ITA Southern Regionals

October 13, 2021 | Women's Tennis

By: Cooper Daras, Student Assistant

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., - Mississippi State's women's tennis team is off to the University of Alabama campus where they will compete at the ITA Southern Regional Championships in an effort to earn individual singles and doubles bids to the ITA National Fall Championships that will take place in San Diego, Calif., from Nov. 4-7.

The qualifying draw begins on Thursday at 9 a.m. and the tournament will conclude on Oct. 19.

"[The fall] has been solid [so far]," said MSU head coach Daryl Greenan. "We have had some nice individual highlights. We have got a lot of quality match play that we needed."

MSU is geared up to face high-level competition at the event. Players from 18 programs will compete at Roberta Alison Baumgardner Tennis Facility.

"That is how you get better," Greenan said. "If we go into a tournament and win 90 percent of the matches, then that tournament is too easy. If we go in and win 50 percent, that is kind of [where we want to be]. Of course, we always come out hungry for more wins and thinking that maybe we missed some opportunities. Those are the ones where we get better - playing against better competition."

The last tournament that the entire team attended was the Debbie Southern Fall Classic in Greenville, S.C. from Sept. 17-19. However, several members of the team have competed in other events since.

Emmanouela Antonaki and Tamara Racine are coming off of the ITA All-American where they took down No. 38 Anna Campana and Carolyn Campana of Wake Forest 9-8(5). Antonaki also competed in singles action at the event and defeated Duke's 28^th-ranked Chloe Beck in a thrilling three set match 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(3).

Magda Adaloglou and Chloé Cirotte are off the heels of two ITF 15K events where they faced very high levels of competition, including a match against the No. 1 ranked duo in the country, Carmen and Ivana Corley of Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, Marta Falceto, Maddie McKee, and Alexandra Mikhailuk's last action took place at the Debbie Southern Fall Classic. Falceto won her first two matches and advanced to the final of her flight.

"The fall, we treat it as a marathon and not a sprint," said MSU associate head coach Sachin Kirtane. "More than results, we want to see them competing and getting better. I feel like every time they go out there that is happening right now. So that is very encouraging."

The newest Bulldog, McKee, will open up play for the Bulldogs against Alexandra Ferreira of UAB on Thursday at 9 a.m. in the qualifying draw.

The remaining Bulldogs will compete in the main draw of the tournament on Friday.

Antonaki earned No. 1 singles seed in the region and will play at noon. Her opponent will be determined after the qualifying draw is concluded.

Cirotte will play Aina Domingo-Bernabeu of McNeese State and Falceto will compete against Auburn's Anastasia Astakhova, also at noon.

Racine is the No. 16 seed and will take on Ole Miss' Kelsey Mize while Mikhailuk will match up with Madeline Meredith of Auburn at 2 p.m.

Adaloglou enters as the No. 9 seed and faces off against Mia Rabinowitz of LSU at 3 p.m.

MSU is also sending three pairs of doubles to compete in the ITA Southern Regional Championships.

Antonaki and Racine are locked in as the No. 2 doubles seed and earned a first round bye. Their first match will take place on Saturday at 9:45 a.m. with their opponents still to be determined.

Similarly, Adaloglou and Cirotte are the No. 3 seed and also earned a first round bye. The duo's first match will take place on Saturday at 9 a.m. with their opponents to be determined.

The tandem of Falceto and Mikhailuk will face South Alabama's pairing of Nikola Kohoutova and Luminita Tutunaru on Friday at 9 a.m.

The coaches are confident in their players' ability to compete at a high level and do well this weekend.

"We have been fortunate enough to have players that we feel good about taking them pretty much anywhere and that they will hold their own and be able to get huge wins," Kirtane said. "I think that helps. It elevates the program as a whole when you can say that no matter what tournament you are taking [the players] to, we can beat one of the best teams there and get some quality wins."

For more information on the Bulldog women's tennis program, visit HailState.com or search for "HailStateWT" on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.