State To Meet Host Auburn In First Round Of SEC Men's Tennis Tourney

? 2009 SEC Men's Tennis Championship Central

STARKVILLE, Miss. ? The 63rd-ranked Mississippi State men’s tennis team will be the No. 10 seed in the 2009 Southeastern Conference men’s tennis tournament and will face the host school, seventh-seeded Auburn, who is ranked 19th nationally, Thursday in the opening round. The match is set for a 3 p.m. CT start at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn, Ala.

MSU finished 6-14 in the regular season with a 2-9 record in the SEC, while Auburn went 12-9 and 5-6 in SEC play. The Bulldogs have won five of their previous six matches against Auburn including a current two-match win streak over the Tigers. This will be the first time the two schools have met in the SEC Championship’s 19-year history.

The Bulldogs and the Tigers met earlier this season in an SEC match played at Auburn, where MState claimed a dramatic 4-3 win. MSU opened the match with the doubles point, but found itself facing a 3-2 deficit with two singles matches remaining. Then, sophomore Antonio Lastre tied things up for the Bulldogs at the No. 4 spot to set up senior Ryan Farlow who won a memorable three-set bout at the No. 1 spot over Alexey Tsyrenov of AU, climbing back from a 5-1 deficit in the third set to claim the match for State.

True freshman, Artem Ilyushin, ranked 93rd nationally and was victorious in two of his final three matches of the regular season, leads MSU followed by Farlow, who stands 95th nationally. Lastre is fresh off his hard-earned win this past weekend over Ole Miss.

Auburn is led by Tsyrenov who stands at 34th in the country. The Tigers also boast 98th-ranked Tim Puetz. Standing at 10th nationally in doubles is the Tiger tandem of Puetz and Tsyrenov

“We are healing up from a long regular season and are encouraged by the draw we have for the SEC tournament,” said Mississippi State head coach Per Nilsson. “The important thing is we cannot look past Auburn even though we already beat them at their place earlier this season. They are a quality team and we will need our full focus against them for us to have a chance to advance.”

The winner of the first round match between MSU and Auburn will face second-seeded Georgia on Friday at 3 p.m. Live stats will be available at www.mstateathletics.com.

Mississippi State University Athletics

State To Meet Host Auburn In First Round Of SEC Men's Tennis Tourney