State Tennis Rises To #19 In Rankings; Begins SEC Tourney Friday
State, 13-7 overall and 8-3 in the Southeastern Conference, now turns its attention to postseason play. The Bulldogs will open competition in the 2011 SEC Championship this Friday, April 22, at Florida's Ring Tennis Complex. By way of its win over the Rebels Saturday, State earned the #4 seed and a first-round bye in this weekend's tournament. MSU will meet the winner of fifth-seeded and 17th-ranked host Florida and 12th-seeded Arkansas at 3 p.m. ET Friday afternoon.
The Bulldogs, which have won eight of their last 10 matches, claimed the SEC Western Division title outright this season by going 5-0 against the division and posted the program's best SEC regular season record since 1998's NCAA semifinal squad went 9-2.
New individual rankings were also released Tuesday and four Bulldogs remained among the nation's top 100 players. State's George Coupland is 58th nationally in singles, Artem Ilyushin moved up to 59th, Louis Cant is 78th and true freshman Malte Stropp is 103rd.
In doubles, Cant and Stropp are now 33rd in the country, while Coupland and Ilyushin are 58th as a tandem.