State Men's Tennis Looks To Rebound In Sunday Match Against #4 Georgia

STARKVILLE, Miss. ? The Mississippi State men’s tennis team (4-3) will look to rebound this Sunday in a “Battle of the Bulldogs” dual match against No. 4 Georgia (11-2) at 1 p.m. at State’s A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre as part of the SEC’s opening weekend of play.

MSU is fresh off a hard-fought Friday match that ended in a 5-2 setback to the visiting No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers. In that match, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-1 lead after claiming the doubles point for the fourth straight time and junior Chris Doerr winning at the No. 6 position, but the Vols responded winning the four remaining singles matches, two in three-set battles, to take the SEC opener.

“We are coming off a tough loss to a very competitive Tennessee team, but we saw a lot of good things from our guys,” said head coach Per Nilsson. “We also saw a lot of things we need to improve on, but as long as we continue to work like we have been those things will improve and we will begin to win the key points in our matches which will help us get the wins we need to in conference play.”

MSU is led by senior Ryan Farlow who is ranked 118th in the country. The Madison, Miss.-native has been able to rack up two wins over ranked opponents thus far this season. All five of MState’s regulars in the singles lineup have a record of .500 or better, but it is Doerr who is the lone individual nursing a current win streak, after MSU’s trio of rookies - Daniel Sanchez, Artem Ilyushin and Louis Cant - all had three-match win streaks broken on Friday by UT.

MSU has shown many positives in doubles play early on in 2009, led by the tandem of sophomore Antonio Lastre and Sanchez at the No. 2 slot. That duo remained undefeated in dual match play at 6-0 with a win Friday. At No. 3, Cant and Ilyushin are riding a four-match win streak into Sunday’s match against Georgia. Playing No. 1 for the Bulldogs, Doerr and sophomore Tanner Stump are .500 on the season (3-3), recently dropping a tough decision to the ninth-ranked Vols’ duo of John-Parker Smith and Davey Sandgren.

Georgia, which is the two-time defending national champion, is coming off a tough 4-3 road loss to No. 10 Ole Miss on Friday. The Bulldogs from Georgia are paced by a trio of ranked players in seventh-ranked junior Nate Schnugg, No. 60 junior Jamie Hunt and sophomore Javier Garrapiz, who stands at 84th nationally. UGA’s lead doubles team of Hunt and Schnugg rates 12th in the country.

“We had a fantastic crowd Friday and they were very important to us in giving Tennessee a strong challenge,” Nilsson said. “We need everyone to come back out and support us Sunday in this equally important match against the two-time defending NCAA champions.”

MSU will look to break a three-match skid to UGA, with their last win coming in 2005, when the MSU won in Athens 4-3.

Admission is free to all home MSU tennis matches and live stats will be available at www.mstateathletics.com.

Mississippi State University Athletics

State Men's Tennis Looks To Rebound In Sunday Match Against #4 Georgia