Mississippi State
Alabama State
No. 15 MSU Set To Host Hornets In NCAA First Round
May 02, 2024 | Men's Tennis
STARKVILLE – For the second consecutive season and fourth time since 2018, No. 15 Mississippi State is set to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Championships on its home courts.
The top-seeded Bulldogs will play the second match of the Starkville Regional against No. 4 seed Alabama State on Friday at 1 p.m. Second-seeded Georgia Tech - ranked 30th nationally - will take on No. 3 seed and 37th-ranked Middle Tennessee on Friday morning at 10 a.m. to start things off at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
"The NCAA Championships is obviously the most important tournament of the year," said MSU head coach Matt Roberts. "It features the best teams in the country and ultimately determines the national champion. We are extremely proud to be hosting this event. It will give our awesome fans a chance to see two days of outstanding college tennis on our campus."
MSU is making its 13th-straight trip to the NCAA Championships and 32nd overall. Roberts has guided the Bulldogs to the NCAAs in nine of his 10 years as head coach with the only exception being in 2020 when the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
Mississippi State has reached the Sweet 16 in four of its last five trips to the NCAAs. The Bulldogs beat Alabama State 4-0 in the opening round of the 2023 Starkville Regional before downing Middle Tennessee 4-2 in the second round to advance to the Fort Worth Super Regional.
MSU enters the NCAA Championships with a 17-7 overall record and finished third in Southeastern Conference play at 9-3. The Bulldogs have won six of their last eight matches but are coming off a 4-2 loss to then 24th-ranked South Carolina in the quarterfinals of the SEC Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on April 19.
No. 47 Nemanja Malesevic and No. 48 Petar Jovanovic – both All-SEC performers - headline Mississippi State's singles lineup. Malesevic has won 10 of his 13 matches this spring at the No. 1 position and is tied for the team lead with five match-clinchers on the year. Jovanovic tops the Bulldogs with 26 singles victories, eight of which have come against ranked opponents.
Malesevic's 103 career combined dual match wins is tied with Mark Jeffrey (1988-91) for 10th all-time in school history and his 59 dual match singles victories are the seventh-most in MSU's annals. He needs one more win to match former teammate Florian Broska (2018-22) for ninth in all-time dual match victories.
Mississippi State has won the doubles point in six-straight matches with Jovanovic and doubles partner Benito Sanchez Martinez clinching five of those matches. The sophomore tandem has 21 victories on the year – 10 over ranked foes – and sport a career-best No. 11 national ranking.
Alabama State heads to Starkville with a sparkling 14-3 record and is coming off its third consecutive SWAC Tournament title and sixth in the last seven years. The Hornets went undefeated (6-0) in conference play during the regular season and are on a three-match winning streak having defeated Jackson State 4-0 in the SWAC Tournament Championship on April 21.
MSU is a perfect 5-0 all-time against Alabama State and have outscored the Hornets 23-0 in those matches.
The winner of Friday's matches moves on to the second round set for Saturday at 1 p.m. at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. In the case of inclement weather, matches will be moved inside the adjacent Rula Tennis Pavilion.
For more information on the Bulldog men's tennis program, visit HailState.com or search for "HailStateMT" on X, Instagram and Facebook.
