State Tennis Hosts Pair Of Matches In Home Opening Weekend
STARKVILLE, Miss. - This Saturday and Sunday the 32-ranked Mississippi State men's tennis team will play host to the Tulane Green Wave and UAB Blazers at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre on MSU's campus. The matches will be played at 1 p.m. and admission is free to all MSU home tennis matches.
The Bulldogs (1-3) are having a quick turnaround by facing the Green Wave (4-1) following Thursday's 4-1 setback in the River Hills Cup versus in-state rival and No. 17 nationally ranked Ole Miss. The Green Wave last played on Feb. 5 in a 5-2 win over Florida A&M. UAB will be playing their first match of the season after having to postpone a pair of matches earlier this year.
Not only is this MSU's home opener but this will be the first road test for Tulane this season. The Bulldogs are 3-0 in home openers in the Per Nilsson era and have won seven-straight home openers with their last lost coming against No. 3 Baylor on Jan. 25, 2003. In the all-time series between MSU and Tulane, State holds a 9-6 advantage and are 5-1 in home matches against the Green Wave. Against the Blazers, the Bulldogs own a 25- 1 all-time advantage.
Bulldog junior Artem Ilyusin is coming off an impressive come-from-behind victory at the River Hills Cup over Ole Miss' Kalle Norberg at the No. 2 position. Ilyushin is now one win shy of the 40th of his career. 60thranked Louis Cant of MSU recently had his four-match win streak snapped but is still an impressive 4-1 this spring season. The Maroon and White boast two nationally ranked doubles tandems with George Coupland and Zach White standing 45th nationally and Coupland and Ilyushin ranked 53rd.
The Green Wave are led in victories by Joe Young who is an impressive 13-3 this season, a perfect 5-0 in dual match action and has won seven-straight. Tulane's Radu Ionescu is also 5-0 in dual matches this year. In doubles the Green Wave are led by Ionescu and Idan Mark who are a perfect 4-0 this year.
Both matches on Saturday and Sunday will begin at 1 p.m. CT at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. Admission is free to all MSU home tennis matches and live stats will be made available at www.mstateathletics.com.