STARKVILLE, Miss. ? The Mississippi State men’s tennis team is asking for fans to “Crowd the Courts” this weekend as the Bulldogs host two Southeastern Conference matches this weekend to conclude a three-match homestand by the Bulldogs. First, MSU will serve up on Friday, April 3, at 2 p.m. CT against No. 53 Vanderbilt and then conclude the weekend with a Sunday, April 5, match against 13th-ranked Kentucky at 1 p.m. CT.
“We are really looking for some fan support this weekend, because there are two very good teams coming in and two wins would be very important for us at this point in the season,” said Mississippi State head coach Per Nilsson. “We have a lot of guys that have played good this year. We just need to try and get us all playing good on the same day.”
Mississippi State (5-10, 1-5 SEC) will look to break a current six-match losing streak this weekend against the two visiting SEC foes. Vanderbilt (4-11, 0-6) will look to snap a 10-match losing streak and pick up their first conference win of the season. Kentucky (13-5, 3-3) strolls in following a split weekend on the road, winning 4-3 at Auburn, but dropping a 4-3 decision to Alabama.
MState is 15-2 at home all-time against the Commodores and has won two of the last three matches between the two schools. State is 11-4 versus UK at home and has taken two of the previous three matches from the Wildcats as well. State dropped tight 4-3 decisions to both teams on the road last season.
For the first time this season, the Bulldogs boast two nationally-ranked players, led by senior Ryan Farlow who has jumped up 20 spots to 88th nationally, fresh off of a straight-set upset of South Carolina’s 50th-ranked Diego Cubas this past Friday. Joining Farlow in the rankings at No. 89 is freshman Bulldogs Artem Ilyushin who upset the 14th-ranked player in the country on Sunday, Alex Lacroix of Florida. With the win, Ilyushin picked up his first conference victory and is now a winner of three of his last four matches.
Vanderbilt is led by their doubles team of Adam Baker and Alex Zotov, who stand at 46th in the country. Charlie Jones leads Vandy in victories with 16, including three in conference action, while Zotov is a close second with 15 wins this season, but is an impressive 5-1 in SEC matches.
Kentucky boasts the fifth-ranked player in the country in senior Bruno Agostinelli. Agostinelli also teams up with Brad Cox in doubles to form the country’s 19th-ranked tandem.
Admission is free to all Mississippi State home tennis matches and live stats will be available at www.mstateathletics.com.
