MSU Tennis Travels To Alabama For A Pair Of SEC Road Matches
STARKVILLE, Miss. ? The Mississippi State men’s tennis team will travel to Alabama for a pair of Southeastern Conference road matches this weekend. First up will be #20 Auburn who is 7-2 and opened conference play with two wins against LSU and Arkansas both on the road, for a Friday 2 p.m. match. The Bulldogs will follow that up with a Sunday match at 1 p.m. in Tuscaloosa, Ala., when they serve up against the 23rd-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, who also are fresh off a pair of wins in conference-opening matches against LSU and Arkansas this past weekend. UA is on an eight-match win streak and are 11-1 overall this season.
“We are coming off a couple tough matches but are looking forward to rebounding back to where we need to be this weekend,” said head coach Per Nilsson. “Auburn and Alabama are two very talented and experienced teams and we need to be mentally ready for this weekend’s challenge against both teams.”
Mississippi State was riding the wave of a three-match win streak going into conference play, but failed to conjure an upset at home against a pair of top 5 opponents this past weekend when the No. 5 Tennessee and No. 4 Georgia came visiting, both handing State 5-2 losses in tough affairs.
MSU is led by sophomore Antonio Lastre, who is 5-2 and holds a .500 record in conference play after splitting his matches this past weekend. Junior Chris Doerr is riding a two-match win streak into this weekend’s road matches, is 2-0 in conference action and 4-2 overall this season. In doubles play, the tandem of Lastre and rookie Daniel Sanchez dropped their first match of the season against Georgia, after going 6-0 previously, while the freshman duo of Louis Cant and Artem Ilyushin split their conference matches over the weekend as well, and stand at 5-3 in dual match action.
Auburn boasts two players ranked nationally with senior Alexey Tsyrenov ranked 69th and is 11-4 in singles play, competing at the No. 1 spot, and sophomore Tim Puetz, who is No. 105 and sports a 13-4 record in singles, playing primarily at the No. 2 position. In doubles for AU, Puetz and Tsyrenov stand at 11th in the country.
The Crimson Tide sport two players and three doubles teams ranked. Junior Saketh Myneni is ranked 66th and boasts a record of 7-1, primarily from the No. 1 position. Senior Mathieu Thibaudeau stands at 114th nationally and has notched an 8-4 record this season, primarily at the No 2 spot. The duo of Billy Mertz and Myneni leads Alabama in doubles ranking 27th and only suffered one loss this season at the No. 2 position, Ricky Doverspike and Thibaudeau are No. 29 and Michael Jung and Trey Walston are 73rd in the country for the Crimson Tide.
State will be looking to avoid a 0-3 start in conference play for the fourth consecutive year. Against Auburn, the Bulldogs will try to event things up in the series, with the Tigers currently holding a 19-18 advantage. MState holds a three-match advantage over the Crimson Tide all-time (25-22), but Alabama has won the previous two matches.
Live stats links for both matches will be available at www.mstateathletics.com.